Has anyone tried STNR therapy?

[catatonic]

I've just finished reading a book by Cook and O'Dell called "Stopping Hyperactivity" and while the therapy they discuss sounds promising, I don't know of anyone who has tried it. They've been using it for 30 years, out of the Miriam Bender Diagnostic Center.

Here's the premise: many symptoms of hyperactivity are related to the failure to mature of the Symmetric Tonic Neck Reflex, a failure that results in a child being physically uncomfortable in a typical seated classroom position and therefore distractable, hyper, and really struggling with handwriting. Sloppy, over-large writing is one of the first things they look at diagnostically. Maturing the STNR will apparently result in dramatic improvement in hyperactivity.

Cook and O'Dell say that if your child normally sits in a variety of non-standard positions this indicates that the STNR may be a problem. The positions include "slouching" where the child sits with legs straight out in front of him with his bottom low in the chair. There's also "foot-sitting" where he'll sit on one of his feet, and "foot-hooking" where he sits with his feet wrapped around the chair legs, and "reaching" where the legs are in regular sitting position but the arms are stretched straight out in front across the desk or table. Then there's tilting the chair back on two legs in order to keep his own legs extended, and kneeling on the chair with one knee while kind of bending over the table to write. I know my son does all of these things, anything to avoid sitting up straight in the chair like the rest of the kids do.

The book presents a 6-month course of physical therapy designed to rectify the STNR problem. Then you're done. It takes 15 minutes per day of crawling-type exercises where an adult provides physical resistance in a variety of ways. At the end of the 6-months, the STNR immaturity is apparently corrected and hyperactivity symptoms will be drastically improved.

It sounds completely free of risk, and isn't that big of a time investment, so I believe I am going to follow the book's exercise program and see if we get any results. If anyone else has heard of this or tried it, I would love to hear what you thought. If you haven't heard of it, you might want to look for the book and see what you think. At $12.95, it costs less than any doctor visit or prescription and about the same as a bottle of vitamins.

[babytay]

sounds interesting. Once I get my feingold program going I will try this and we can compare notes. My son also does these things when sitting. I have always told him it looks like he is always prepared to get up and run from the dinner table. I have always had to train him to sit properly at the table or desk.

Believe it or not I do some of these things at work. Maybe I can try this with him. I am very impulsive to. I wonder does he get the adhd from me. My Mom was also on Ritilan when she was younger I wonder was she adhd. She is in a hosipital now and has been there since I was 5 and I am now 32. I dont tell this often but I am going to look into any type of treatments I can to prevent my son from going through what my Mom did. I will do a post about this program once I get started.

[Kimmers]

Cat-

I just read a brief introduction on the web about this book (www.stophyper.com) and I am in disbelief. My son does many of the things they talk about and I am very very interested in this! But I was wondering, do you think this would have anything to do with why my son is always crashing into objects or walls (on purpose!) or would this be something that would be more related to Sensory Integration Disorder? The symptoms of SID describe him to a tee! I have asked the OT at our school to evaluate him for this but they haven't done it yet. (Aargh...don't know what is taking so long, it's been several months!) Anyway, I am getting off base here...my main question is that with SID they also do lots of crawling-type exercises, would these two disorders be kind of similar? I wonder who I would even consult to have these things tested. Thanks for any info. you might have!

Kimmers

[AustinsMom]

I have not heard of this specific therapy, but I am familiar with STNR. It's one of several primitive reflexes that are--or should be--integrated as a child matures. I am an OT, but NOT a pediatric OT, so for what it's worth....my initial response is that it seems to be pinning too much on one reflex. But I am a big believer in SID, and so that may influence me. For example, the example of leaning back on chair legs--if a child is needing vestibular stimulation, he will rock on his chair legs. Or if the visual system is not developed, rocking back allows you to see ahead of you while looking slightly down, which is a more immature visual function. Other examples, such as wrapping your legs around chair legs are examples of a child with postural instability, or weak proximal muscles at shoulders, trunk, and hips.

All that being said, I am guessing that the exercises to remediate probably contain many components you would see in a good Sensory Integration program. There may be reciprocal, patterned movement, weight bearing on hands and knees, rocking on joints, movement in all planes, lots of vestibular stimulation, etc. So I can't see how this could hurt at all. Will it eliminate hyperactivity? Maybe not. But a child with postural insecurity will not sit still in his seat, has constant movement, and if you can decrease that a child will not look as hyperactive.

I basically think that anything that strikes a chord with you, and has a feeling of possibility, and can do no harm, is worth a try. I'll be interested to see how it goes.

[catatonic]

Austinsmom -
You're right about the types of exercises. The first two (which are the only ones used for the 1st 6 weeks) are rocking and crawling with resistance. Both start from a hands-and-knees position. With the rocking, the child sits back onto his heels (keeping hands flat on the floor) while the adult applies gentle resistance on the butt. On the crawling, the adult applies resistance to the front of the shoulders.

I'm not pinning huge hopes on this program "curing" my boy. I never trust any claims of a single treatment to cure a condition as varied and complex as ADHD. However, it's a small investment, cannot possibly do any harm, and even if he only LOOKS less hyper, I'll take that as a good outcome.

What really grabbed my attention were the photographs in the book. My son could have posed as the poster child for the postures the authors say are associated with STNR immaturity. I am hopeful that this will at least have SOME noticeable impact on attentiveness. That's really been the hardest thing for me to impact.

Kimmers, on testing, my guess is you'd need someone like Austinsmom, an OT. We did our testing through a psychologist, a private one not the school one, knowing that she would refer us to the appropriate specialists if they were necessary.

I think the schools are actually best equipped to deal with the kind of tests you want, but they don't always cooperate in having the testing done unless you can demonstrate "educational necessity". In my experience, educational necessity is just a fancy way of saying they won't do anything to help your child unless he's failing in school. As long as he can still pull in passing grades and doesn't make life too miserable for the teacher, the school will need a SIGNIFICANT amount of pushing to do any testing.

I really don't know a thing about SID, but it sounds like austinsmom does, so maybe she can help you out. I do know that the crashing into things is something my son also does -- on purpose, too. He seems to need the additional stimulation and has a surprisingly high pain threshold.

[AustinsMom]

I like the book "The Out of Sync Child" as a good description of SID. The author, Carol Kranowitz (I think) uses alot of examples and very clear language. It's meant for parents, not professionals, so is very readable. We did alot of SI work with Austin when he was a toddler and up to 5. We do it more casually now, not as structured. But Catatonic, I agree that you will most likely see positive changes from doing it. And the best part is that in general, kids enjoy doing it. Adding swinging in different planes and work on a scooterboard would also be a fun addition. As I said in another thread just moments ago, Austin is very skilled athletically, and I can't help but believe all that early work helped us avoid some of the incoordination associated with SID and ADHD. Good luck and keep us posted!

[DanielsMom]

I will definately be buying this book. Anything that can help, I will try. Thanks for posting this information.

[DanielsMom]

:DI just got my copy of the book in the mail yesterday. Upon flipping through it, they could have written this book using my son!! I was shocked! Even if it only helps a little it's well worth it.

[AustinsMom]

How is the STNR therapy going for those who are trying it?

[DanielsMom]

It will take some time to show any results. However, they give many Circumventions for working around a problem and many Interventionsfor working through the problem, solving it. I think this will help to some degree for my son. I don't look at it for a cure. So....

[AustinsMom]

I was cruising Amazon.com today and found this book for a couple of dollars used, so I bought it. It sounds like it's an interesting read and more info is always a good thing in my mind.