Baby Reflexes: The symmetrical tonic neck reflex

This reflex comes to play from 6 to 9 months of age and it turns off by 9 to 11 months. This is an important reflex for crawling and hand, eye coordination. This reflex coordinates the upper and lower sections of the body to do opposite things. The reflexes comes out just before the baby is ready to go on all fours. When the baby puts her head down, the arms bend and the legs try to straighten up, while if the baby puts her head up, the arms straighten and the legs bend as well as the bottom sinks onto the ankles. This is the beginning stage and till the baby gets the upper and lower part working together, she/he will not be able to get onto crawling position. Most babies goes through a stage of rocking on hands and knees, often learning how to move backward before being able to move forward. The motion of rocking helps the balance and muscular systems in the upper and lower halves of the body to work together to maintain a stable posture. This stage is very important, not only for the eye hand coordination which is essential for reading and writing later in life, but also for the alignment of upper and lower ends of the spine in preparation for standing up and walking. Vision, proprioception (learning where their body is) and balance learn to operate together in a new relationship with gravity. It i s important at this stage to let the baby try all the major movements that he/she feels and to avoid trying to push them into the next stage (eg. Walking), before they are ready to move on by themselves (Blythe).

Reference:

S.G.Blythe (2004). The well balanced child. Hawthorn Press. Uk