My child wants to do their homework lying on the floor
How posture can reveal retained reflexes.
Parents often wonder why their child prefers the floor to the desk or the kitchen table for homework. By "on the floor", I mean lying on their tummy, propped up on their elbows. Children can stay in this position for hours, happily working away.
We all have our preferences, and there is little to worry about unless your child refuses the table altogether and insists on the floor.
Why your child won't sit at a desk for homework .
Children who work only on their tummies on the floor are showing that sitting comfortably is not really an option for them. This usually has nothing to do with a long day sitting at school. The reason lies elsewhere, in their time as a baby and in developmental milestones they did not meet.
What is the STNR Reflex and why does crawling matter?
Around 8 months, babies learn to creep (commando crawl) on their tummies, then to crawl on all fours. This crawling phase matters because it develops several important physical skills. Before babies creep forward and start to crawl, certain parts of their bodies are interconnected. That connection may have served the infant well, but it must integrate to make way for the next level of development. This reflexive connection (with no cortical control) links the baby's head and limbs.
On all fours, a baby should learn to move their head up and down with ease, so they can scan their surroundings, ready for crawling. At the start of the crawling phase, however, two things happen due to the active reflex. Upward head movement links to the arms straightening, and downward head movement links to the legs trying to straighten. The baby either ends up with their head on the floor as they tilt it downwards, or sinks back onto their ankles as their arms straighten (a sphinx pose) when they tilt their head up.
Over time, that connection weakens. The baby balances on all fours and moves their head up and down in any position, with no unnecessary reflexive pattern getting in the way. They can then coordinate opposite limbs in synchrony and scan their surroundings as they move. We call this reflex the Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (STNR), and it fully integrates as the baby crawls, between 9 and 11 months of age.
“Sitting at a desk for long hours exhausts them.”
Can skipping the crawling stage affect homework and concentration?
A child who did not crawl extensively, or at all, may remain stuck at this reflexive stage. Their STNR stays active the entire time. Sitting at a desk for long hours exhausts them because they work against the automatic urge to extend their arms or legs depending on their head position. These children find writing and reading at a desk challenging, so they compensate by anchoring their legs and wrapping them around the chair legs, or by resting their head on the table or in their hands.
They like working on the floor because it lets them keep their legs straight while bending their arms and moving their head. This position supports them, requires no compensation and poses no physical challenge.
“When the eyes cannot move smoothly across a page, reading becomes tiring.”
Retained STNR and ADHD: Is there a link
A by-product of an active STNR reflex is poor eye coordination, which affects eye movement and agility, not overall acuity. A child who likes to do homework lying on the floor may also show many ADHD characteristics, including a poor attention span. In infancy, they lack the skill to move successfully toward a target of interest because they never moved to it in a way that developed that skill. The crawling phase develops many visual skills such as binocular vision, divergence and convergence and these children missed them.
When the eyes cannot move smoothly across a page, reading becomes tiring, and attention fades long before the task ends. These children often read fidgeting, slumping and wandering away from the desk as a lack of effort, when a physical difficulty more likely lies at the root.
How to help a child who prefers working on the floor
First, let your child use the floor. This position gives them comfort, and they can direct the energy they would otherwise spend on compensating towards the work itself. A cushion or rolled towel under the chest can make the position more sustainable, and regular breaks help.
Over time, you can encourage the reflex to integrate by getting them to crawl on all fours. If concerns remain, seek an assessment, as more unintegrated reflexes may be at play and the problem needs a more focused approach.
Dyslexia? Dyspraxia? ADHD? ASD? Speech & Language? Developmental Delay? Anxiety?
Is every school day a struggle? As a parent, you may feel exhausted and on this journey alone. Each year you see the gap getting wider. You need to do something - change the approach, help your child learn for themselves, find a way to turn this around - to help while you can - do this NOW. the first step is free.
