When babies are around 6 months old, they start to show signs of getting ready to crawl. When a baby pushes up and arches their back or starts to rock back and forth on hands and knees, watch out! You can be sure that your baby is about to become mobile.
Since the American Academy of Pediatrics began suggesting that babies be placed on their back when sleeping to help prevent SIDS, babies naturally spent less time on their tummies. This, of course, started a trend of babies crawling later in their development. The problem with babies crawling later occurs when babies don’t crawl and go straight to walking. Some doctors don’t see a problem with this; however, research has shown many physical and cognitive benefits from babies crawling before walking.
Why Crawling is so important
- Supports physical and brain development. When a baby uses the opposite arm and leg together, to it helps to connect the right and left sides of the brain. By performing this dual movement, the brain creates connections that aid with more complex movements in later developmental stages
- Helps develop vision and co-ordination. Moving your hands in front of your face aids in how depth perception and hand to eye coordination is formed.
When a baby is crawling, they are learning how to not only see the movement of their hands, but also other objects around them. This ability to track objects connects later with the ability to track words on a page when learning to read, helps babies have a more flexible memory, and increased focus. - An increase in physical strength leads to better co-ordination and balance. Crawling deploys the use of the whole body. It strengthens the arms, legs, neck, and core muscles and provides an increase in balance while not creating the higher level of tension associated with standing and walking.
- Babies grow in self-confidence. When a baby accomplishes something, it naturally increases their confidence. Crawling is important for babies because it provides a wide range of problem-solving scenarios that provide baby with plenty of opportunities to feel good about themselves. This makes for a happy and excited baby, and who doesn’t want a happy baby?
Bonus. Crawling is great for adults too! It’s never too late to get better balance and increased coordination.
So, get down on the grown with your baby and have fun with it!
I personally like to create small and simple obstacle courses to crawl through and watch my baby try to follow me. My older children enjoy joining in too!
How to Help Babies Crawl
- Floor time! And it does not have to be just tummy time. Babies learning to roll from front to back and back to front is just the start of their exploration of movement so if your baby does not like tummy time no worries! Just do a little bit at a time and then leave them to explore the world from their back.
As I mentioned earlier, join them!
Babies love it when they can see you and spend time with you. They also learn a lot by mimicking, just like when they try to mimic sounds. This helps tummy time be more enjoyable and rewarding. - Let them discover sitting and standing on their own. I know it’s hard to not prop your baby up in a sitting or standing position once they are strong enough to support their head, but try not to do it more than necessary.
Standing especially involves a lot of balance that babies don’t have right away, and it can cause excess tension in their bodies. This can make crawling more difficult later. - Remember, there is no rush for them to stand and walk. They will be doing that more than enough when the time comes.
Don’t get worried when your baby doesn’t hit each milestone at exactly the right timeframe. Every baby is different so the best way to help them is by meeting them where they are at.
Below are links to some websites with more information on the benefits of crawling.
If you have any questions, leave a comment below. I would love to hear from you!
https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/why_crawl
https://cognikids.com/2016/02/02/crawling-the-most-important-milestone/
https://www.imaginepeds.com/why-is-baby-crawling-on-hands-knees-important-for-development/