Developmental Progression of Neurological Organisation:

• development from baby to adult (ontogenesis)
  
• development from amoeba to primate (phylogensis)

This overview is simplified. For details see:

1. Cohen, B. B. (1989a). The alphabet of movement; primitive reflexes, righting reactions, and equilibrium responses. Part 1. Contact Quarterly. 14 (2): 20-38.
   
2. Cohen, B. B. (1989b). The alphabet of movement; primitive reflexes, righting reactions, and equilibrium responses. Part 2. Contact Quarterly. 14 (3): 23-38.
   
3. Fukuda, T. (1961). Studies on human dynamic postures form the viewpoint of postural reflexes. Acta Oto-Laryngologica. (supplementum) 161: 1-52.
   
4. Hackney, P. (1998). Making Connections - Total Body Integration through Bartenieff Fundamentals. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach.
   
5. Kestenberg Amighi, J., Loman, S., Lewis, P., & Sossin, K. M. (1999). The Meaning of Movement; Developmental and Clinical Perspectives of the Kestenberg Movement Profile. Amsterdam: Gordon & Breach.

The body grows and shrinks as a single undifferentiated mass, as an amoeba, the simplest form of life, the most basic sense of being. The most fundamental movement, lungs and also oxygen in blood flow and saturation of cells (cellular breathing), moves through a rhythm of expanding and condensing. When breath is integrated throughout the body, then all parts of the body will move at least slightly in coordination with the in / out breath rhythm.
   To recuperate and get in touch with one’s own “internal state”, with one’s body self, “proprioceptive self”, “where you are in the moment”, to find your entire body connected through your internal core (Hackney, 1998, p. 53). “Breath to find your core”

The breath gradually expands outwards connecting the inner core to limbs all 6 limbs (2 hands, 2 feet, head, tail) which reach outward away from center, and back inward toward center, like a starfish or octupus, squid, the core of the body is activated and connected through the midlims to the distal ends of limbs.
   Expanding the core outwards into the world, bringing the world back into your core. An interaction between the inner self and outer environment, keeping these two connected so that extreme outwards movement is possible, while still retaining the sense of self. Avoid ‘over reaching’, since the outward reach is always tied to the inner core. The active, alive core allows outward reaching to be maximal. “naval radiation to connect inner with outer”
Patterns

1. - Core initiation (body center)
2. - Distal initiation (hands, feet)
3. - Distingushing individual limbs or groups of limbs

Out of navel radiation, the mouth distinguishes itself and is the beginning of the development of the spine. Opening the mouth wide, and reaching as if towards food, begins to extend, expand and open the top of the spine.

Head and coccyx reach toward and away from each other, like a worm, snake, fish. Can express basic earthy motivations and a sense of individual and self, with an allround plastic awareness of the external environment.
   To turn and twist into “new options”, “can help unblock or unstick fixed notions”, to find many other possibilities by following one’s own curiosity outwards into the world in flexible, twisting, plastique directions (Hackney, 1998, pp. 89, 108). “Spinal to explore new options”
Patterns

1. - Push through lower (tail)
2. - Push through upper (head)
3. - Push through lower & reach through upper (tail - to - head)
4. - Push through upper & reach through lower (head - to - tail)

The upper and lower body each function as integrated units, with the upperbod (rib-cage, shoulder-girdle, arms and hands) works in contrast to the lowerbody (pelvic girdle, legs and feet), eg. where the lower body supports and upperbody moves as a unit, such as travelling movements of a frog or rabbit
   Can be expressive of basic instincts for self survival, status, personal power, being grounded in the earch supporting a reach into the environment. To “push through to the goal”, linear-directional goals (Hackney, 1998, p. 120). “Upper-lower to push it through”
Patterns

1. - Push through lower (legs, feet)
2. - Push through upper (arms, hands)
3. - Push through lower & reach through upper (feet - to - hands)
4. - Push through upper & reach through lower (hands - to - feet)

The right and left sides of the body each open / close in contrast to each other other, or an entire side steps as a unit in counterbalance with the entire other side, like a reptile or some mammals; often a slower travelling speed (eg. humans ‘stroll’ with both hands in pockets) since it is not a reaching pattern (body-half is pushing only, in locomotion with body-half the limbs travelling forward do so just from the impulse of the push, rather than a full reaching out into space).
   Oppositions, dichotomies, dualisms, polarities, “On the one hand, On the other hand” yes/no, do it/don’t, good/bad, correct/incorrect, simple-clear opposites (NOT complex relationships) (Hackney, 1998, pp. 165, 173). “Body-half to clarify issues”
Patterns

1. - Push through lower (push lower-right; & lower-left)
2. - Push through upper

The body connects diagonally (top-left to bottom-right etc.) as in the oppositional locomotion of higher mammals emerging when the limb moving forward reaches actively into space, thus connecting back into the pushing leg; contralateral connectivity then can turn into rhythmic flex/extend patterns connecting across opposite limbs. Twisting, curving and spiral patterns often occur when the limbs are leading in diagonals across the body.
   Expresses the most complex level of evolution, can express integration of dualistic issues in complex ways, interconnected, spiralling, connect across right and left, integrating the analytic verbal side with the spatial symbolic; feeling & form; simultaneous relationships in several complex directions “tying and untying forms in three-dimensional space”, “winding in one body area will initiate an unwinding in another to complete the phrase, thus opening space in a new way”, conceptualise how phenomena are networked and multifaceted (Hackney, 1998, pp. 177, 179, 198). “Body-diagonal for integration”
Patterns

1. - Push through lower & reach through upper (lower-rt - to - upper-lft; & lower-lft - to - upper-rt)
2. - Push through upper & reach through lower