The Benefits of Learning to Crawl Before Learning to Walk

My heart breaks a little bit each time I hear a parent boast about their infant skipping a stage of the developmental process as if they have a prodigy. As a father of three, I understand how proud a parent can be about their kids. As a Chiropractor, I understand how skipping developmental stages can be disastrous for the well-being of the child. The more I learn about anatomy and physiology, the more profound my appreciation for the miracle of human life. As simple as it may seem, each stage in the infant’s growth is paramount to the proper coordination of the Central Nervous System. Please do not rush your child past these important milestones in their life. Crawling generally begins at around 6 to 9 months of age. Check out these amazing skills that are fine tuned when a baby practices crawling:

Benefits of Crawling

Gross Motor:

·        Increases strength and coordination throughout the body

·        Builds neck, back and stomach muscles to sit and stand upright

·        Develops cross-crawl patterning (example: right arm moves with left leg, and vice versa). This reciprocal movement pattern lays strong foundations for walking, running, and climbing stairs.

Fine Motor:

·        Bearing weight on hands develops arches in the palm necessary to hold and manipulate objects

·        Develops shoulder, arm, wrist and thumb stability for writing

·        Develops both sides of the body so children learn to cross midline and acquire hand dominance

Sensory Processing:

·        Decreases tactile sensitivities by providing deep pressure input to the hands

·        Activates muscles and joints of trunk, arms and legs for body and spatial awareness

·        Builds muscles that coordinate breathing for self-soothing

·        Development of motor planning (praxis) as child plans how to move their body from point A to B

Academic:

·        Improves attention

·        Develops communication between both hemispheres of the brain for higher level skills such as reading, speech and communication

·        Develops depth perception and binocular vision as child’s eyes learn to focus and move from looking far away to nearby their hands while crawling. These same eye movements are used to throw and catch a ball, read or copy from the board.

As you can see, there is more going on in the little bundle-of-joy than meets the eye. If your kiddo goes from being carried everywhere to standing and walking without practicing these important tasks, the child may even be at a disadvantage when learning other important developmental stages throughout their lifetime.

Common reasons that a baby misses the crawling stage include:

·        The baby is held too often without any necessary “Tummy-Time”.

·        The parent is afraid about the safety of putting their child on the floor because of trauma hazards, choking hazards, or sanitary concerns.

·        The parent assists the child in a standing position to encourage the standing posture prematurely.

·        The child is placed into a baby holder of some type which positions them in the standing position for extended periods of time.

Unfortunately, a parent who is happy that their kid is developing at an incredible rate may not understand what the poor kid is missing. Please forward this to a friend of yours who has a baby so that they do not accidentally make this mistake. At the same time, don’t be too bummed out if your toddler has already started walking around without having learned to crawl. Be sure to have them adjusted routinely by the family Chiropractor to allow their Central Nervous System to function a greater potential allowing natural healing to take place.

Kelly Baltuska, DC