Neural Exam - 3 month - supine position

This infant is almost 3 months old.

In the supine position, the baby’s extremities are held off the mat and there is spontaneous movement of all extremities.
During the first 3 months of life, babies will often lie with their head turned to one side or the other.
- This may be associated with extension of the arm that the head is turned towards.
This is part of the asymmetric tonic neck reflex, which is most prominent during this time but diminishes by 3 to 4 months of age and is gone by 6 months of age.
- asymmetric tonic neck reflex - ("fencing reflex") a primitive reflex when the face is turned to one side, the arm and leg on the side to which the face is turned extend and the arm and leg on the opposite side flex.

Movie Source - Paul D. Larsen
Movies from the PediNeuroLogic Exam website are used by permission of Paul D. Larsen, M.D., University of Nebraska Medical Center and Suzanne S. Stensaas, Ph.D., University of Utah School of Medicine. Additional materials were drawn from resources provided by Alejandro Stern, Stern Foundation, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Kathleen Digre, M.D., University of Utah; and Daniel Jacobson, M.D., Marshfield Clinic, Wisconsin. The movies are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
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Cite this page: Hill, M.A. (2024, April 18) Embryology Neural Exam - 3 month - supine position. Retrieved from https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/Neural_Exam_-_3_month_-_supine_position