A child can be hyperactive for many reasons and may be moving constantly. One of these reasons can be a child’s reaction to underlying stress, which can be caused by retained Primitive reflexes and are therefore creating a stress in the child and causing your child to be hyperactive. These reflexes are present in the very early stages of a baby’s life, in order to keep it alive. For example, The Moro reflex helps the baby take its first breath. If this reflex is not correctly integrated, the child has an underlying stress, which they are constantly trying to deal with.
The hyperactive child and fight and flight response
This instinctive stress response to unexpected events is known as ‘fight or flight’.
Stress happens when we feel that we can’t cope with pressure and this pressure comes in many shapes and forms and triggers physiological responses. One of these can be that the reflexes have not integrated. These changes are best described as the fight or flight response, a hard-wired reaction to perceived threats to our survival. When survival had meant facing immediate and real threats such as confronting an animal, our response has saved lives. At times of danger, the body’s innate intelligence automatically takes charge by triggering a set of changes that bypass our rational thoughts. Priority is given to all physical functions which provide more power to face an enemy or to flee.
Fight or flight and a hyperactive child
If something is seen as a threat, the brain sends a fight or flight message to the body, to make you react before you think. This is a survival mechanism, that we have no real control over. Children that are hyperactive have an over stimulated fight / flight response and very often a retained Moro reflex.
When a threat is perceived , the body releases hormones that help it to survive by making us run faster and fight harder. There is an increase heart rate and blood pressure – delivering more oxygen and blood sugar to power important muscles. Blood away from the skin to the core of the body – reducing blood loss if the body is damaged. As well as this, these hormones focus our attention on the threat, to the exclusion of everything else. Breathing is accelerated to supply more oxygen and the immune system is activated, ready to administer to wounds. Attention and sight become acute and highly focused and the sense of pain is diminished as the body releases analgesic hormones.
This physiological aspect leaves the child viewing the world as a hostile place and he/she is fully prepared to fight or run. This stops the child from being able to focus on one thing or to concentrate as part of him thinks he is in danger and needs to be hyper and alert and so you have a hyperactive child.
If the Moro reflex is retained then the body feels exposed and fearful, and the system makes the child feel as if it is operating at fever pitch level, constantly prepared for battle, perceiving potential threats everywhere. This can also cause emotional and behavioral problems and can be the reason for a hyperactive child as well. That is why a child may be overly sensitive or aggressive. Today many of children don’t take enough physical exercise or movement to ‘burn off’ the effects of the response and they are left with stress build up.
