The Amphibian Reflex:
Cross-Pattern Movement and the Postural Foundation
This is the ninth post in a series on primitive reflexes and Blomberg Rhythmic Movement Training. If you’re new here, start with the [Field Guide to Primitive Reflexes] for the big picture. The previous post covered the [STNR] — the crawling reflex that shapes learning.
Learn This Work From the Inside Out
If this series has you wanting to move beyond reading and into practice, I’m teaching BRMT Level 1 this summer. Over eight Wednesday mornings (June 24 – August 12, 10:30 AM –12:30 PM ET), you’ll learn the foundational reflexes, how to test for them, and the specific rhythmic movements and isometric techniques used to integrate them. Whether you’re a parent, therapist, educator, or someone who simply recognizes these patterns in your own body — this course gives you the tools to work with them directly. No prerequisites. Just curiosity and a willingness to get on the floor.
Every reflex we’ve covered in this series so far has had the same story arc: it emerges, it serves a purpose, and it should integrate, i.e. retire, as more mature patterns take over. The TLR, the Landau, the Spinal Galant, the Babinski, the STNR: they all follow this pattern. They’re temporary. They’re scaffolding. They build something and then they’re supposed to come down.
The Amphibian Reflex is different. It’s not a primitive reflex. It doesn’t integrate. It doesn’t retire. It emerges between four and six months of age, and it should remain active for the rest of your life.
The Amphibian is a postural reflex, one of the mature patterns that replaces the primitive ones. It’s what the scaffolding was building toward. And when it doesn’t develop properly, the primitive patterns it was supposed to replace have nothing to hand off to. The old programs keep running because the new one never came online.
What the Amphibian Reflex Is
The Amphibian Reflex is typically tested in the prone position, lying on the belly. It can also be tested in a supine position. When you lift one side of the pelvis, the hip and knee on that same side automatically flex, drawing up toward the body in a smooth, coordinated movement, while the opposite side stays extended. It’s the movement pattern you see in a baby doing a “commando crawl” (belly on the floor, alternating sides, pulling forward with coordinated flexion on one side and extension on the other. BRMT Canada; Move Play Thrive).
The reflex develops first in prone (on the belly) and then in supine (on the back). It emerges around four to six months, precisely when the ATNR (Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex) has begun integrating enough that the limbs are no longer automatically linked to head position. This is the critical handoff: the ATNR linked head movement to limb movement. The Amphibian unlinks them. For the first time, the baby can move one limb independently, without the head, the opposite arm, or the opposite leg being dragged along automatically (BRMT Canada; Goddard, 2005).
This is what neurological maturity looks like in movement: isolated, voluntary, differentiated control of individual body quadrants, of individual limbs. The Amphibian Reflex is the marker that says the central nervous system has graduated from whole-body, reflexive, all-or-nothing patterns to segmented, voluntary, coordinated ones.
What the Amphibian Is Building
The Amphibian Reflex doesn’t build something and then leave. It is the thing that was being built. It’s the mature operating system that the primitive reflexes were setting the stage for.
Cross-lateral movement. The Amphibian enables true cross-pattern movement, the coordinated, alternating, contralateral motion that underlies belly crawling, hands-and-knees crawling, walking, running, swimming, and virtually every rhythmic locomotor activity humans do. When you walk, your left arm swings forward with your right leg, and vice versa. That pattern doesn’t emerge from nowhere. It emerges from the Amphibian Reflex, refined through months of crawling, and maintained for life (Move Play Thrive; Blomberg, 2015).
Independent limb control. Before the Amphibian, the baby’s limbs are governed by reflexive links: head turns right, right arm extends (ATNR); head drops, arms bend (STNR); head tilts back, whole body extends (TLR). The Amphibian breaks those links. One leg can flex while the other extends. One arm can reach while the other stabilizes. The body can finally move in parts rather than as a reflexive whole. This is the foundation for every skilled movement the child will ever make, from throwing a ball to playing piano to writing with one hand while the other holds the paper steady.
Motor planning. With independent limb control comes the capacity for motor planning: the ability to sequence movements voluntarily, to decide which limb does what and when. Motor planning is the neurological bridge between intending an action and executing it. When the Amphibian is well-developed, motor planning is fluid and unconscious. When it isn’t, movement requires more conscious effort than it should, and complex motor sequences (tying shoes, using utensils, navigating a crowded hallway) become clumsy and frustrating.
Bilateral integration. The Amphibian Reflex supports the ability to use both sides of the body in coordinated but different ways simultaneously. This is bilateral integration, and it depends on strong communication between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Writing, cutting with scissors, stabilizing paper while drawing, riding a bicycle, playing a sport, all require one side of the body to do one thing while the other side does something different. The Amphibian Reflex is one of the foundational postural patterns that makes this possible.
Brain maturation. Harald Blomberg describes the development of postural reflexes like the Amphibian as markers and drivers of neural pathway maturation. The emergence of the Amphibian reflex reflects the growing connectivity between the cerebellum, prefrontal cortex, and vestibular system. When these connections are well-established, attention, impulse control, and motor coordination all improve. When they aren’t, symptoms commonly associated with ADD and ADHD may persist (Blomberg, 2015; Move Play Thrive).
When the Amphibian Doesn’t Fully Develop
Because the Amphibian is a postural reflex that should remain active for life, the problem isn’t retention, it’s under-development. The reflex either didn’t emerge fully, or it emerged but never strengthened to the point where it could reliably replace the primitive patterns beneath it.
The consequences overlap with many of the patterns we’ve seen throughout this series, and for good reason: if the postural replacement doesn’t develop, the primitive reflexes it was supposed to take over from continue operating by default.
Fatigue. This is one of the most consistent signs. When the Amphibian is underdeveloped, cross-pattern movement isn’t automatic; it requires conscious effort. Walking, running, and even sitting require more neurological energy than they should. The person tires more easily than expected, especially during physical activity. Movement that should be effortless stays effortful (Move Play Thrive).
Clumsiness and poor coordination. Without a well-developed Amphibian, the body struggles with any activity requiring coordinated, differentiated limb movement. The person may appear clumsy, stiff, or “robotic” in their movement, as if the parts of their body aren’t talking to each other smoothly. Sports, dance, martial arts, and complex physical activities may feel overwhelmingly difficult.
Stiffness and restricted movement. An underdeveloped Amphibian can contribute to hyper-tonus, i.e. excessive muscle tension, particularly in the legs and lower body. Without the smooth, differentiated movement the Amphibian provides, the body may default to more rigid, whole-body patterns. Flexibility decreases. Movement becomes restricted. The person may be described as “tight” or “stiff” without an obvious structural cause (Goddard, 2005).
Crawling abnormalities (in developmental history). If a child’s Amphibian didn’t develop properly, their crawling was likely affected. They may have commando-crawled without the smooth, alternating pattern. They may have bear-walked, scooted, or skipped crawling entirely. The quality of crawling, not just whether it happened, but how or what it looked like, is a window into whether the Amphibian developed.
Persisting primitive reflexes. This is the systemic consequence. The Amphibian is meant to take over from the primitive reflexes (the TLR, the STNR, the Spinal Galant, the ATNR). When it doesn’t develop fully, those primitive patterns remain in the driver’s seat. The child’s nervous system is still running the early software because the upgrade was never installed. This is why addressing the Amphibian is often a critical piece of the integration puzzle; you can work on integrating the primitive reflexes, but if the postural reflex that’s supposed to replace them isn’t developing alongside, the primitive patterns may keep reasserting themselves.
The Amphibian and the Story of Level 1
This post marks the end of the BRMT Level 1 reflexes in this series. So let’s step back and see the whole picture — because these six reflexes don’t just happen to be grouped together. They tell a developmental story, and Dr. Blomberg chose them for Level 1 because they form a complete foundational sequence.
Here is the arc:
The TLR orients the body within gravity. It’s the brainstem’s first answer to the question “which way is down?” - a binary, whole-body toggle between flexion and extension driven by the vestibular organs in the inner ear. It builds postural tone, vestibular calibration, and the body’s most basic spatial reference. Everything starts here.
The Landau builds on that orientation. It takes the raw gravity data from the TLR and converts it into the first functional extension pattern: head, chest, and limbs lifting while lying prone. The Landau builds core strength, near vision, and frees the hands from postural duty so they can become exploratory tools. It’s the bridge between passive orientation and active engagement.
The Spinal Galant introduces lateral movement. Where the TLR and Landau operate in the forward-and-back plane, the Spinal Galant drives side-to-side hip movement, preparing the body for the alternating lateral shifts that crawling requires. It also plays a role in the birth process, in auditory development, and in bladder function. It’s the body learning to move in a new direction.
The Babinski ensures that where the body meets the ground, the feet, is functioning properly. The toes learn to flex and grip rather than fan and extend, building the anchoring mechanism that standing, walking, and balance all depend on. It connects downward to the earth and upward to the Tendon Guard chain that we’ll explore later in the series.
The STNR divides the body into upper and lower halves and creates the scaffold for crawling. It gets the baby onto hands and knees and then, through crawling itself, integrates, building near-far visual accommodation, midline crossing, cross-lateral brain wiring, and postural endurance for sitting. It’s the bridge between floor and desk.
The Amphibian is what all of this has been building toward. It’s the mature postural pattern that replaces the primitive ones, enabling isolated limb control, cross-pattern movement, bilateral integration, and fluid motor planning. It doesn’t integrate because it’s not scaffolding. It’s the building.
Read in sequence, the story is clear:
orient within gravity, then rise; then move laterally & anchor the feet; then divide upper from lower, and finally graduate to voluntary, differentiated movement.
Each reflex depends on the ones before it. Skip a step, and the steps above it are compromised. The whole structure either works as a system, or it compensates as a system.
This is why Blomberg teaches Level 1 first. This is why he starts with the brainstem, the cerebellum, the vestibular system. Not because these are the most dramatic reflexes (the emotional reflexes of Level 2 and the cognitive reflexes of Level 3 often get more attention) but because nothing above this level works properly if this level isn’t stable.
What Can Be Done
Developing the Amphibian Reflex involves activities that stimulate cross-lateral, coordinated limb movement in prone, the same kind of movement the reflex is designed to enable. Because the Amphibian is a lifelong reflex, the work isn’t about integrating it (helping it retire) but about strengthening it (helping it come fully online).
In BRMT, Amphibian development involves rhythmic movements done on the belly that stimulate the alternating flexion-extension pattern, lifting one side of the pelvis while the corresponding limbs flex. These movements are gentle, rhythmic, and done for one to two minutes per day, with rest periods.
For children, belly crawling is the most natural and effective activity. Not hands-and-knees crawling (which develops the STNR), but the earlier commando-style crawling with the belly on the floor and the limbs pulling the body forward in alternation. Crawling through tunnels, under tables, and across varied surfaces all stimulate Amphibian development.
For older children and adults, swimming, especially freestyle and backstroke, which require coordinated alternating limb movement, is one of the best activities for Amphibian development. Any movement that asks the body to coordinate contralateral limb patterns (marching, cross-crawl exercises, dance, hiking on uneven terrain) supports the Amphibian.
Looking Ahead
With the Amphibian, the Level 1 foundation is complete. We’ve built the body’s relationship with gravity, posture, lateral movement, foot stability, crawling, and the transition from reflexive to voluntary movement. This is the physical base upon which everything else depends.
In the next posts, we’ll turn to BRMT Level 2 - the emotional reflexes. We’ve already covered the Fear Paralysis Reflex and the Moro Reflex. The Tendon Guard, the Emotional Triad synthesis, and the bridge to pain resolution come next. We’ll explore the reflexes that govern the body’s relationship not with gravity and movement, but with safety, threat, and regulation. The brainstem’s work isn’t just physical. It’s also the foundation of our emotional lives.
If you’re recognizing these patterns and want to explore whether primitive reflex integration might be relevant for you or your child, consider connecting with a certified BRMT practitioner. You can find more information at brmtusa.com. Not in the US? Check out blombergrmt.com.
I am a BRMT consultant and I’d be more than happy to connect with you and answer any questions you may have. Feel free to book a Complimentary Discovery Call so we can chat.
Learn This Work From the Inside Out
If this series has you wanting to move beyond reading and into practice, I’m teaching BRMT Level 1 this summer. Over eight Wednesday mornings (June 24 – August 12, 10:30 AM –12:30 PM ET), you’ll learn the foundational reflexes, how to test for them, and the specific rhythmic movements and isometric techniques used to integrate them. Whether you’re a parent, therapist, educator, or someone who simply recognizes these patterns in your own body — this course gives you the tools to work with them directly. No prerequisites. Just curiosity and a willingness to get on the floor.
Next in the series: The Tendon Guard Reflex — The Body’s Hidden Brake System
References
Blomberg, H. (2015). The Rhythmic Movement Method: A Revolutionary Approach to Improved Health and Well-Being. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Blomberg, H., Dempsey, M., & Smyth, M. (2011). Movements That Heal: Rhythmic Movement Training and Primitive Reflex Integration. (1st ed.). Beyond the Sea Squirt.
BRMT Canada. (n.d.). Amphibian, Spinal Galant and Spinal Pereze Reflex. Retrieved from https://brmtcanada.com/blomberg-rhythmic-movement-training/reflexes/amphibian-spinal-galant-and-spinal-pereze-reflex/
Goddard, S. (2005). Reflexes, Learning and Behavior: A Window into the Child’s Mind. (2nd ed., rev. expanded). Fern Ridge Press.
Goddard, S. (2005). The Well Balanced Child: Movement and Early Learning. (Rev. ed.). Hawthorn Press.
Goddard, S. (2023). Reflexes, Movement, Learning & Behaviour: Analysing & Unblocking Neuro-Motor Immaturity. Hawthorn Press.
Move Play Thrive. (n.d.). Amphibian Reflex. Brain and Sensory Foundations Course. Retrieved from https://moveplaythrive.com/resources/primitive-and-postural-reflexes/amphibian-reflex
Pecuch, A., Gieysztor, E., Wolańska, E., Telenga, M., & Paprocka-Borowicz, M. (2021). Primitive reflex activity in relation to motor skills in healthy preschool children. Brain Sciences, 11(8), 967. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11080967
Zafeiriou, D. I. (2004). Primitive reflexes and postural reactions in the neurodevelopmental examination. Pediatric Neurology, 31(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2004.01.012