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Reflex Experiments for Children

Reflexes are your body's automatic, involuntary responses to outside stimuli and are required for survival and to protect your body from harm. You can use reflex experiments for children to test their reaction time and ensure that their brain and nervous system are working properly.

  1. The Startle Reflex

    • This experiment is the simplest one and tests general reflexes. You can be do this experiment in a variety of ways, but must startle the child. For infants, you can do this experiment by simply making a loud noise nearby. For older children, you can try making an unexpected movement, like slamming something on the table, during a normal conversation. This action should elicit a response from the child, such as a twitch, yelp, blink or other movement and shows that the reflexes are working to automatically move the body away from harm.

    The Knee Jerk

    • The knee jerk, or patellar, reflex is one o the most well-known reflexes because of its common use at the doctor's office. In this experiment, your doctor hits the child just below the knee cap on the patellar tendon which should cause the leg to kick out involuntarily. This kick occurs when the spinal cord receives a message that the tendon and connecting muscle have been stretched and sends a message back telling the muscle to contract. This reflex helps you keep your balance when standing up. It is called a deep tendon reflex (DTR) and also exist in the wrists, ankles, outsides of the elbows, and crooks or the arms.

    Pupil Reflex

    • For this experiment, observe the child's eyes as the lights are dimmed or turned off and a few minutes later after the lights are turned on again. The pupils should be large when there is little light and smaller in full light. This reflex serves to prevent excessive light from entering and damaging the eye.

    Blink Reflex

    • You can test the blink reflex by placing the child behind a window or other transparent barrier and throwing something soft (like a cotton ball) at them from the other side. Though the child is protected by the barrier, he will most likely blink due to the blinking reflex, which functions to protect the eyes from damage caused by outside objects.

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