ADHD
What parents often tell us
“They cannot stay still.”
“They are always on the move, always interrupting.”
“At school, they cannot keep up. At home, they explode.”
“When something interests them, they can manage it. Otherwise, not at all.”
Parents often come to us with ADHD already in the picture — or with a suspicion that ADHD may be involved.
Sometimes their child already has a diagnosis.
At other times, parents simply feel that their child functions differently from other children and that the usual advice does not work.
What they often have in common is everyday exhaustion.
For the child and for the parents.
How ADHD-related difficulties may be connected with retained primary reflexes
In some children, behaviours that resemble ADHD may be connected with retained primary reflexes in the nervous system — automatic responses that were expected to become inhibited during early development.
When these reflexes remain active, they can subtly affect exactly the areas that parents and teachers notice most:
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physical restlessness — the child keeps fidgeting and finds it hard to stay seated,
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sensory overload — noise, movement around them or touch may all feel like “too much”,
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a quick shift into stress — outbursts, irritability or fatigue,
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fluctuating attention — not because the child does not want to focus, but because the brain does not have a calm foundation.
Typical examples we may see in connection with ADHD / attention difficulties:
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The Moro reflex may keep the body “on alert”. The child may be easily distracted and may shift into a stress response more quickly.
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The Spinal Galant reflex may make calm sitting more difficult. Contact between the back and the chair can act as an irritating trigger for the body.
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STNR — Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex — may affect postural stability during sitting and desk work. The child fidgets, changes position and seems unable to “sit still”.
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And when the brain is overloaded, its natural ability to filter sensory input may also work less effectively.
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Maintaining attention then becomes genuinely difficult.
It is important to say that this is not an “excuse” and not a shortcut explanation.
It is a specific developmental layer that may show outwardly as restlessness, impulsivity or difficulty concentrating.
During the initial NDS assessment, we look at whether retained primary reflexes are present and whether they may be contributing to your child’s everyday difficulties. If so, they become part of the support plan.
How we approach this in NDS
In children with ADHD-like difficulties, we do not focus only on “attention”.
We look at what supports attention — and what makes it harder to maintain.
Within our work, we focus on:
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the presence of retained primary reflexes and their impact on everyday functioning,
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body stability and postural control — sitting, support, muscle tone and endurance,
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sensory processing, especially the vestibular and proprioceptive systems — balance and body awareness,
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regulation — moving between activation and calming, and the child’s tolerance of load,
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coordination and motor planning, so that the brain does not have to spend so much energy managing the body and has more capacity left for learning,
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simple home activities for a few minutes a day, adjusted according to the child’s responses.
💡 Good to know
You are not booking a separate “ADHD therapy” appointment.
You are booking an initial NDS assessment.
Only after this assessment do we create a plan: where to begin, what is most important right now, and in what order to proceed so that the steps make developmental sense.
Book an Initial NDS Assessment
Your initial assessment is with Marja. We will recommend a therapist for follow-up appointments based on the assessment results and your child’s needs.
We will look at key developmental functions, including persistent primary reflexes and sensory processing.
We will then create a plan together: what to support first and how to work on it at home for just a few minutes a day.
The relationship between retained primary reflexes and ADHD-related difficulties is an area of growing scientific interest.
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Wang, M. et al. (2023). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is associated with (a)symmetric tonic neck primitive reflexes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14, 1175974.
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Konicarova, J. & Bob, P. (2012). Retained Primitive Reflexes and ADHD in Children. Activitas Nervosa Superior, 54(3–4), 135–138.
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Konicarova, J., Bob, P. & Raboch, J. (2013). Persisting primitive reflexes in medication-naïve girls with ADHD. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 9, 1457–1461.
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Volemanová, M. & Květoňová, L. (2018). Persisting primary reflexes – one of the causes of behavioral and learning disorders. Sborník Stejné a jiné, Praha.
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Volemanová, M. (2018). ADHD ve škole. Co s tím? Integrace a inkluze ve školní praxi, VI(2).
You can find the complete list of scientific sources on the Scientific Background page.
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