Reflex Integration in a Functional Setting

Approaching childhood developmental challenges from the perspective of retained reflexes has the potential to unlock improvements in functional and learning skills.

To make reflex integration more accessible, Kokeb McDonald, OTR/L developed Reflex Integration Through Play™️, a fun, easy-to-use method to address retained primitive reflexes in a functionally-focused way. Use it in your OT/PT clinic, the classroom, or at home.

Why Reflex Integration?

Primitive reflexes are foundational, yet involuntary movement patterns that are present at birth and become integrated or “dormant” before a child reaches 12 months of age. Most reflexes become integrated into a pattern of movement after infancy, so more mature and voluntary movements can emerge.

When reflexes do not become integrated, they interfere with a child’s ability to develop an appropriate foundation for stability and mobility. A child without integrated primitive reflexes learns faulty and maladaptive movement patterns.

You must address retained reflexes in your client to make a lasting change and bridge the gap in their development. You, the trained therapists can observe these faulty responses by how a child reacts, behaves, and moves and address this interference in reflex integration to help the child recreate activities a typically developing child would have performed to integrate reflexes.

The Reflex Integration Through Play™️ Certification Program

Learn RITP’s unique method for primitive reflex integration, focused on functional goals, while you build your career as a therapist.

  • Five course, on-demand certification program
  • Exclusive access to our online community and monthly Q&A calls with Kokeb
  • Get access to our upcoming exercise reference and screening app

Reviews from Reflex Integration Through Play™️ Participants

What Our Therapists & Clinics Have Said

Make Reflex Integration Fun with Our Memory Game!

An engaging way to incorporate reflex integration exercises from the RITP series into your OT or PT therapy sessions at home or in a clinic setting, this take on the classic memory/concentration game gives you 48 easy to manipulate tiles allowing the players to practice 24 exercises.

Reflex Integration Through Play™️ Book Series

Dive into this one-of-a-kind, hands-on instructional resource that will provide clear explanations of the critical role the reflexed behaviors play in childhood development and learning skills.

Step-by step instructions on dozens of exercises per book serve as an invaluable tool that will help you navigate the child’s natural environment and compassionately understand the developmental challenges related to it.

  • Play-based primitive reflex integration exercises you can implement at school, home and in-clinic settings
  • Accommodating alternatives for children of all levels
  • Fun but precise illustrations to help you and your child understand the movements
  • Moro Reflex
  • Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (ATNR)
  • Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (STNR)
  • Tonic Labyrinthine Reflex (TLR)
  • Spinal Galant Reflex
  • More to come…

Hey there 👋,
This is Kokeb, pediatric OT, author, mentor, mother, and creator of Reflex Integration Through Play. It’s our mission to help kids develop into their healthiest selves and I hope you’ll join us on the journey!

Kokeb 💕

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