How Chiropractic Care Can Help Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Many neurodevelopmental disorders, such as ADD, ADHD, autism, and learning disorders are a result of a lack of neurosensory integration. This is the ability to take in, process, organize, and integrate sensory information so that we feel comfortable and secure. We can then respond appropriately to given situations and demands. So how do we do this? Sensory integration: where we learn through our senses. What we see, what we hear, what we touch, and what we experience through the perception of movement from our joints and muscles are our foundations for learning. It is a way to look at how the body and the brain work together to process sensory stimulation. If a child has a disorganized response to sensory input, there is an imbalance within the central nervous system.

So how can a chiropractic adjustment in Evergreen help this disorganized response? An adjustment to certain parts of the spine can stimulate the two automatic nervous systems: parasympathetic, which regulates a rest and recovery response; or sympathetic, which regulates the fight or flight response. This adjustment can increase or reduce activity in the nervous systems to bring them back into harmony, allowing the child to handle their environment better. In time with additional therapy, the child will no longer be overwhelmed and hyperactive or underwhelmed and seeking stimulation all the time.

In addition to the adjustments, Dr. Mooberry will perform a thorough exam looking for delayed motor development and inhibition of normal sensory-motor development. How? By testing for the primitive reflexes, which are automatic reflexes controlled by the brainstem that should be inhibited by a higher center of the brain to allow for more sophisticated neural structures to develop. If they persist past 12 months of age, the five far senses: auditory, olfactory, tactile, taste, and vision; as well as the three near senses: vestibular (regulates all sensory systems), proprioception (sensory of movements from joints and muscles), and interoception (sensory from organs) cannot develop properly. If there are active primitive reflexes they can be associated with delays in various sensory systems. In addition to adjustments, we stimulate and build up particular sensory systems through play therapy, which will help decrease some of the common symptoms associated with neurodevelopment disorders. Once higher sensory systems are in place the primitive reflexes will go away.

Finally, research has found that learning disorders and dyslexia affect 3-10% of school-aged children. They have parts of their brain that are not functioning adequately or are delayed in their development. Research has found that chiropractic care is not only for adults with back pain. The only source of constant stimulation to the brain comes from the spine and its postural muscles constantly adjusting to the force of gravity. If the daily physical stresses of life cause misalignments in the spine, called vertebral subluxations, then the brain is not adequately stimulated due to the presence of these subluxations. This can cause problems throughout the body. So as you can see, chiropractic care can be beneficial for children with neurodevelopment disorders in many ways: by stimulating and regulating the nervous system with adjustments; discovering if there is delayed motor or sensory nervous system development and through play therapy rebuilding those nerve pathways; and by constantly stimulating the brain by keeping the spine in align! Please call Dr. Katy Mooberry at Get Moving Chiropractic if you have questions or would like a free consultation at (303) 670-7777 or getmovingchiropractic@hotmail.com.