Huge numbers of children and adults suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). ADHD symptoms—characterized by age-inappropriate lack of focus, hyperactivity, and impulsivity—often come with learning, anxiety, and social challenges.

ADHD symptoms also go hand-in-hand with motor challenges (Taylor 2004; and Konicarova J., Bob, P., Raboch, J., 2014) and with sensory processing challenges (Zang, Y. et al, 2002; and Ghanizadeh A., 2011).

Research also shows that the brains of children and adults with ADHD are less mature than the brains of individuals who do not have ADHD symptoms. (Hoogman, M., et al., 2017; Sripada, C.S., Kessler, D., Angstadt, M., 2014; Rubia, K., 2007).

This leads to important questions: Can improvement in sensory-motor skills lead to more brain maturity? And can movements that foster brain maturity lead to the dissolving of ADHD symptoms?

Harald Blomberg, MD answers “Yes” to these questions. Based on decades of experience, Dr. Blomberg, a psychiatrist, recommends targeted innate infant movements (rhythmic movements, and primitive reflex integration movements) to increase brain maturity and help children and adults overcome ADHD symptoms. (Blomberg, H., and Dempsey, M., Movements That Heal, 2011).

Dr. Blomberg, gives an example of a young boy with severe ADHD and behavior problems:

“[Using innate rhythmic and reflex integration movements] you can expect great improvement and even total recovery from ADHD, which was proven by [one] of my patients who had been on medication for six years since he was six [years old], when he was diagnosed with ADHD. In spite of the medication his symptoms only got worse and he had severe symptoms when he first started . . . He had severe temper tantrums, severe attention problems, impulsivity, etc[.,] and attended school in a special class with seven students and five adults. After 8 months [of doing innate movements] he joined a normal class and after 18 months [of doing innate movements] he functioned perfectly. Recently he went back to the child psychiatric clinic to get his diagnosis cancelled. He made all the diagnostic tests and it was established he no longer had ADHD.” (Blomberg, H., 2008)

According to Dr. Blomberg, ADHD symptoms are caused by underdevelopment of the brain, body, and sensory systems. This underdevelopment happens in large part at the beginning of life, when a child does not get full exposure to all of the innate movements during womb-life, birth, infant, and toddler stages.

There is a body of research that supports Dr. Blomberg’s view of ADHD as underdevelopment. (Rubia, K., 2007 and Shaw, P., et al, 2007).

Though more research is needed, as Dr. Blomberg has experienced, when we provide these innate movements to individuals, the brain resumes development where it left off. Best of all, when children receive enough of the many types of innate movements, we see very positive changes as more brain maturity is gradually built. Children are able to release anxiety, be still, sleep better, focus, learn, and finish school work. Along with the brain, the body also matures and children develop much better posture, strength, stamina, and comfort.

It sounds miraculous that these innate movements can change the brain and body! Yet this is the same miraculous process that happens naturally in human development. When there is a hindrance in our natural development, it allows problems like ADHD symptoms to take root.

Profound Transformation

Here is another example of the transformative power of innate rhythmic and reflex integration movements. At 10 years old, Andy had been diagnosed with moderately severe ADHD. Andy tested below grade level in all subjects at school. He was socially awkward and physically clumsy. 

After 4.5 months of doing innate movements, Andy’s mom reported:

“I am amazed at the things he has accomplished as a result of the [innate rhythmic and] reflex integration exercises, including catching objects being thrown to him. His balance has improved and he enjoys riding his bicycle without encouragement to do so. 

Most importantly, for the first time since he began school, he now tests at grade level in every area except one. And the one was only two points off. This is after testing as low as two grade levels behind in previous years.

Andy has begun to join in activities at Boy Scouts and with friends at school. We are beginning to see some maturing and consciousness of himself around other people, making him more socially acceptable to others and not that ‘different kid’.”  

According to Dr. Blomberg there is a simple explanation for the profound transformation that Andy and many others have experienced using these innate movements. Blomberg explains that ADHD behaviors—lack of focus, distractibility, and poor impulse control—are also seen in normal development around the ages of one to three years.

Children who later end up with a diagnosis of ADHD remain in a less mature state because they have not fully built the brain and body connections needed to reach a more mature state. While school children with ADHD do not literally behave like toddlers, they do struggle with attention and behavior because their brains and bodies are partially underdeveloped. Depending on the severity of underdevelopment, this can make everyday tasks and school work very challenging and tiring.

Fueling Development Through Movement

The good news is the underdevelopment seen in ADHD can change by tapping into the innate movements that fuel our development in the first place, allowing the brain and body to literally grow out of the ADHD-like behaviors seen in toddlerhood. For many individuals, this can be accomplished in 15-25 minutes a day of targeted rhythmic and reflex integration movements.

Motor challenges and sensory processing challenges are often greatly helped by the same innate movements that help dissolve ADHD symptoms.

Dr. Blomberg also acknowledges that nutrition and health play important roles in helping with ADHD symptoms. Along with good health and nutrition, providing innate movements is critically important for an overall plan to help dissolve ADHD symptoms.

There is great hope for children who suffer from ADHD. With brain-enhancing innate movements, these children can live happier, more effective lives and find success doing what is meaningful for them.

Notes:

Blomberg, H., and Moira Dempsey, Movements That Heal: Rhythmic Movement Training and Primitive Reflex Integration. Sunnybank Hills, Qld.: Book Pal, 2011.

Blomberg, H., Personal email conversation, June 20, 2008

Ghanizadeh A. Sensory processing problems in children with ADHD, a systematic review. Psychiatry Investig. 2011;8(2):89–94. doi:10.4306/pi.2011.8.2.89

Hoogman M, Bralten J, Hibar DP, Mennes M, Zwiers MP, Schweren LSJ, van Hulzen KJE, Medland SE, Shumskaya E, Jahanshad N, Zeeuw P, Szekely E, Sudre G, Wolfers T, Onnink AMH, Dammers JT, Mostert JC, Vives-Gilabert Y, Kohls G, Oberwelland E, Seitz J, Schulte-Rüther M, Ambrosino S, Doyle AE, Høvik MF, Dramsdahl M, Tamm L, van Erp TGM, Dale A, Schork A, Conzelmann A, Zierhut K, Baur R, McCarthy H, Yoncheva YN, Cubillo A, Chantiluke K, Mehta MA, Paloyelis Y, Hohmann S, Baumeister S, Bramati I, Mattos P, Tovar-Moll F, Douglas P, Banaschewski T, Brandeis D, Kuntsi J, Asherson P, Rubia K, Kelly C, Martino AD, Milham MP, Castellanos FX, Frodl T, Zentis M, Lesch KP, Reif A, Pauli P, Jernigan TL, Haavik J, Plessen KJ, Lundervold AJ, Hugdahl K, Seidman LJ, Biederman J, Rommelse N, Heslenfeld DJ, Hartman CA, Hoekstra PJ, Oosterlaan J, Polier GV, Konrad K, Vilarroya O, Ramos-Quiroga JA, Soliva JC, Durston S, Buitelaar JK, Faraone SV, Shaw P, Thompson PM, Franke B, Subcortical brain volume differences in participants with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children and adults: a cross-sectional mega-analysis. Lancet Psychiatry. 2017 Apr; 4(4):310-319.

Konicarova, J., Bob, P., & Raboch, J. (2014). Balance deficits and ADHD symptoms in medication-naïve school-aged boys. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 85. doi:10.2147/ndt.s56017

Rubia, K., Neuro-anatomic evidence for the maturational delay hypothesis of ADHD. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(50), 19663-19664. doi:10.1073/pnas.0710329105

Shaw P, Eckstrand K, Sharp W, Blumenthal J, Lerch JP, Greenstein D, Clasen L, Evans A, Giedd J, Rapoport JL, Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is characterized by a delay in cortical maturation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Dec 4; 104(49):19649-54.

Sripada, C. S., Kessler, D., & Angstadt, M. (2014). Lag in maturation of the brain’s intrinsic functional architecture in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(39), 14259-14264. doi:10.1073/pnas.1407787111

Taylor, M., Chapman, E., & Houghton, S. (2004). Primitive reflexes and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Developmental origins of classroom dysfunction. International Journal of Special Education, 19(1), 23-37.

Zang Y, Gu B, Qian Q, Wang Y. Objective measurement of the balance dysfunction in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder children. Chin J Clin Rehabil. 2002;6:1372–1374.