Developing Motor Pathways: Key to Building Functional Skills
Julia Grover-Barrey OTR/L
Founder of In-Tuned®
We continue to connect the dots and fill in the blanks when it comes to diagnosis and management of neurodevelopmental and mental health disorders. Research to identify underlying mechanisms, as well as diagnostic and biological biomarkers is ongoing; these disorders have a vast landscape of common genetic mutations (Jensen et al, 2022). What determines one individual from a fate of having autism, another schizophrenia and yet another ADHD comes down to the combination of genetic vulnerabilities, environmental risk factors and epigenetic differences (Homberg et al, 2016; Schlotz & Phillips, 2009).
Regardless of the underlying causes, these disorders share commonalities in terms of abnormal behaviors or core difficulties interfering with an individual’s ability to function, such as abnormal social behavior, lack of focus, poor working memory, motor inefficiency, atypical sleep-wake cycle to name a few. These difficulties vary in intensity and combination between individuals. Children who have significant expressive and receptive language deficits are more obvious to identify and tend to qualify for services at a younger age. Children with subtle difficulties get the least in terms of therapeutic support or accommodation at school, and many of the evaluations we use to assess function are not sensitive enough to identify qualitative differences. These children with subtle neurodevelopmental and mental health disorders are often labeled with behavior problems, socially atypical, described as lacking in self or academic motivation, and so on.
Focusing on the core difficulties and building these particular skills go a long way to improving functional deficits. There are no pharmacological molecules available on the market that will improve all of the skills-based needs, nor is there likely to be many in the future considering the biological complexity and heterogenicity of these disorders.
“MOVEMENT is the only readily available therapeutic with the potential to improve the organization of an individual’s unique nervous system and address their unique functional needs.” -Julia Grover-Barrey
Here is why I say this emphatically:
Movement is the final common pathway; behavior requires movement.
Movement is output informed by multi-sensory input and throughput requiring involvement of all levels of the nervous system.
Movement has the potential to wire up neural tracts, develop the communication stream between different sensory regions of the brain, strengthen and balance neural circuitry.
Movement connects both sides of the brain for better whole brain function.
Movement is based on a constant dance between neural circuits spanning all levels of the nervous system in a “go” or “no go” fashion, whether in response to ballistic stimuli, motor planning or exercising free will. These “go” “no go” motor pathways used in novel ways, cross over into areas of executive function such as initiative, impulse control and task switching.
Movement directly and positively effects hormone and neurotransmitter synthesis impacting stress resilience and mental health (Caplin et al, 2021).
Movement is the final common pathway and the first common pathway. We come out of the womb moving. We were born with innate sensorimotor reflexes to help us survive and organize our nervous system. Movement has the capacity to continue to organize our nervous system throughout our lives.
In-Tuned® was created to help identify those children who do not fit neatly inside a diagnostic box, who fall between the cracks in the educational system and who have been through traditional interventions but continue to struggle.
In-Tuned® 1:1 Lessons and Therapeutic Groups are strategically movement engineered to improve functional skills and optimize occupational performance of children of all ages and all skill levels.
In-Tuned® Trainings are designed to create an army of other professionals who have greater knowledge about how to identify and support children on their developmental journey, as well as to help reduce their risk factors for life long mental health disorders.
Join the army,
Julia