Discussion
The aims of this study were to analyze the relationships among the level
of inhibition of primary reflexes, MC and the development of the
crawling pattern in children aged 5 to 6, and to assess the differences
based on the participants’ gender, which were specified in four
hypotheses.
Regarding the first hypothesis, the results showed that the
non-inhibition of primary reflexes was higher in those children with
lower MC, as they obtained higher scores in the test applied (Goddard,
2015). Significant differences between children with and without
developmental impairments were found (Matuszkiewicz & Gałkowski, 2021),
with large effect size for TLR and STNR, in line with other studies
where these reflexes were found to be the least integrated ones in
infants (Hickey & Feldhacker, 2021; Madejewska, Choińska, Gieysztor &
Trafalska, 2016].
Differences were also observed, with medium effect size, in MR and ATNR,
suggesting that the participants’ low MC might have its origin in the
lack of reflex inhibition, which may also affect other domains, as these
problems rarely occur in isolation (Matuszkiewicz & Gałkowski, 2021;
McPhillips & Sheehy, 2004).
Regarding correlations between MC scores and reflex inhibition in group
A, the Macb-2 total score showed negative and statistically correlations
with ATNR, one of the most frequent reflexes in preschool children
(Gieysztor et al., 2017), and MR. The latter may be justified by its
relationship with balance and coordination (Goddard, 2014), which are
the most common motor problems in children with psychomotor disorders
(Pecuch et al., 2018) and are also skills that allow children to
effectively participate in Physical Education (PE) lessons (Dalziell,
Booth, Boyle & Mutrie, 2019)
Likewise, in group A, manual dexterity presented significant
correlations with MR and STNR, which could be justified considering the
relationship between MR and coordination and balance already mentioned,
and the transfer of these skills to ball games and sports (Goodard,
2005). These data suggest that children with movement difficulties show
greater presence of these reflexes (Pecuch et al., 2020), which seems to
affect their general coordination as well as their performance in tasks
involving hand-eye coordination.
Regarding group B, negative and significant associations were found
between all dimensions and the overall Macb-2 score and all reflexes
assessed. These results suggest that the lower the reflex evidence, the
higher MC (Gieysztor et al., 2017; Gieysztor et al., 2018; Goodard,
2005; Goodard, 2015).
However, the positive relationship between aiming and catching and ATNR
in children without motor difficulties should not be disregarded
(r = 0. 36, p < 001). It disagrees with other
study (McPhillips & Sheehy, 2004), where authors stated that children
with persistent ATNR were at risk of motor difficulties, as poor
inhibition of this pattern may be the cause of fine and gross motor
control problems, and could disrupt the emergence of motor skills such
as rolling, crawling, creeping, and catching or kicking a ball
(McPhillips & Sheehy, 2004). Therefore, the first research hypothesis
is accepted, but further studies are needed to assess the relationship
between ATNR and throwing and catching skills.
When assessing the second study hypothesis (reflex non-inhibition will
be lower in children who have developed the crawling pattern),
significant differences were found, with small effect size, in the
percentage of reflex inhibition between children who had developed the
crawling pattern and those who had not. Therefore, the hypothesis is
accepted. Furthermore, these results point to the fact that active
primary reflexes may have influence on the development of the crawling
pattern in children, due to their negative contribution to the
development of the cross-lateral pattern (Krog, 2015).
In this sense, and as mentioned above, the STNR acts as a bridge to the
next stage of creeping and crawling development (Krog, 2015). The
results obtained in this research are consistent with this statement,
since the scores observed for this reflex were significantly higher
among those children who had not developed the crawling pattern. This
can be explained by the fact that the STNR allows children to adopt a
quadruped position, and it will prevent progression or movement in this
position if it remains active (Goodard, 2005).
As for the third hypothesis (having developed the crawling pattern will
be associated with greater MC), significant differences were found in
the global score and all dimensions of the Mabc-2 between children who
had crawled and those who had not. These differences may reveal the
importance of the acquisition of the crawling pattern in the development
of more complex skills, as the integration of the right and left sides
of the body is essential to achieve adequate spatial awareness and to
properly develop hand-eye coordination (Hannaford, 2005). Failure to
acquire this pattern can affect performance in simple tasks such as
throwing a ball or batting (Henderson, French & McCarty, 1993) and,
consequently, lead to low satisfaction when performing sport activities
and low participation in PE lessons (Gieysztor et al., 2018; Goddard,
2015). This issue is important as children who feel safe while
participating in PE are more likely to be intrinsically motivated to
continue participating (Rudd et al., 2020).
In the group comparison, 91.1% of group A participants versus 37.5% of
group B had not crawled, resulting in significant differences between
groups (U = 334.000, p = .00). This allows us to accept
the third hypothesis, as well to consider the importance that the
acquisition of this pattern may have in the development of other later
skills (Kubicec, Jovanovic & Schwarzer, 2020).
As a secondary goal, we aimed to assess the differences based on the
participants’ gender. In this regard, it was hypothesized (4) that
reflex inhibition would be lower in male participants. Boys scored
higher than their female counterparts in all the reflexes assessed,
showing lower reflex inhibition. Nevertheless, only significant
differences were observed in the MR, with p < 0.05 in
the whole sample and p < 0.01 in group A (Table 9).
Thus, the hypothesis is partially accepted.
These results are in keeping with previous research that proved that
boys presented higher incidence of active reflexes, both in a healthy
population (Gieysztor et al., 2018; Hickey & Feldhacker, 2021;
Madejewska et al., 2016; Matuszkiewicz & Gałkowski, 2021;
Rashikj-Canevska & Mihajlovska, 2019) and in children with some kind of
difficulty (Mc Phillips & Jordan-Black, 2007; McPhillips & Sheehy,
2004).
The gender differences show that gender can play an important role in
children with motor difficulties. Thus, girls showed higher integration
of some reflexes and higher motor development than their peers
(Gieysztor et al., 2018), and a higher percentage of them had developed
the crawling pattern compared to boys.