Righting Reactions

‘Oh no, my head’s too far back’

‘And now it’s back to the middle!’

What are righting reactions you may ask.  Righting reactions are the reactions that help bring our head, trunk, and body back to midline so we can keep our balance.  They help us to be able to stand on a boat, or a moving train.  They help us to regain our balance after we catch our toe on something, or to be able to walk across an unstable surface.  Basically they are pretty important.

Righting reactions start to develop right away.  That’s what head control is all about.  When a baby can hold their head stable, their righting reactions are easier.  That’s because their inner ear sends messages to the rest of the body about where it is in space.  If it’s not where its supposed to be, the body is able to begin the correction process it to bring it back to where it should be.

After head control, trunk control follows.  This allows your baby to sit up and not fall over.  Initially they are like that house of cards you may have built, they have to be in exactly the right position and you can’t even breathe on them or everything might topple.  But as they learn to react to the messages being sent about their position, and their muscles get stronger and react faster, they are able to play and pivot and reach and do all sorts of things in sitting.

Standing follows sitting (yes, there are other places that righting reactions work such as hands and knees but for this purpose we will move on to standing).  In addition to the head and trunk control there are three general reactions to help keep you in a standing position: ankle, hip, and stepping.  The ankle reaction is when you have a slight instability and sway just a bit at the ankle to find your middle again.  The hip reaction is for a slightly bigger and faster balance disturbances and you bend forward or backwards at your hips to keep yourself standing.  And lastly, the stepping strategy happens when you need to adjust your base of support (foot position) so that you can stay upright.

Hopefully this gives you a general idea of what our bodies do to keep us upright and what your child is working on as they begin to navigate through the developmental milestones.