I am not a morning person.  I sit at the table clutching my coffee cup and read the NY Times.  Several years ago I read an article about the decrease in crawling among babies.  Pediatricians, rightfully, I believe, attributed this to the positioning of babies on their backs to sleep.  This is due to SIDS or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.  A terrible phenomena in which beautiful seemingly healthy babies suddenly die in their cribs.   The conventional conjecture was that the airways might get blocked and therefore by placing the infant on the back the air passages stay open and minimize the risk.  Recently a new article mentioned that there may be some neurological process at work which is causing SIDS, but that people should continue to take care and place their babies on their backs in the crib.

Agreed, agreed, agreed.  However, in the article I read several years ago, the pediatricians said perhaps they had overstated the importance of crawling, and it was a developmental milestone that could be jettisoned from the books.   NOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Crawling is really important.  When physical therapists and I sat at parent meetings and the parents would boast that the child was a precocious walker,  “...even skipped crawling...”  the other therapists and I would give each other hopefully subtle sidelong glances in dismay.  When children skip crawling,  they miss MANY important opportunities to develop motor control.  I will list them here.  If you have read my previous postings you will have some context into why these things I mention are important.

1. 1. Trunk strengthening-especially the back and neck muscles.
   

2. 2.  Dynamic balancing-lifting and placing hands while legs move requires the shifting of the center of gravity four different times-that is a lot of adjusting for the little body to do.  When the baby reaches for a toy, even more balancing is required.  How many of you are in pilates classes where they make you assume four point (crawling position) and then reach forward with one arm while the opposite leg extends?
   

3. 3.  Weight bearing ...  if you’ve read previous postings you know this is HUGE.
   

4. 4.Motor sequencing-the baby has to coordinate a series of lift place movements of arms and legs.  It is complicated because it is a reciprocal rather than simple bilateral movement (more on bilateral motor coordination at a later date).   Suffice it to say, crawling lays down the foundation for bilateral motor coordination.  That motor sequencing establishes  not only the ability to link movements but also begins to give a sense of rhythm which is later borrowed by the language centers  (more on the importance of nursery rhymes at a later date).
   

5. 5.Midline crossing-when the baby moves from sit to crawl and back again, midline crossing and trunk rotation occurs.  Look at the curve in the trunk as a baby crawls.  These muscles are important for activities like swinging a bat, golf club, tennis racquet and maintaining your balance in a fast moving vehicle (think Center Line .... ). If you have to reach up to retrieve an  item from a shelf you also use those muscles.
   

HAVE I CONVINCED YOU YET?

6. 6. Thanks to the weight bearing in the hands, all the muscles used for
   

      fine motor skills (writing, buttoning, etc.) also get stronger.

This crawling should NOT be abandoned when the toddler begins to walk.  Indeed, a healthy six and eight year old should still play games on the floor which require crawling.  I used to be a little sad when I’d see all the kindergarten boys crawling on the floor during free time building and playing with trucks while the little girls sat at tables playing house. It’s  not the role play part  that bothered me.  The boys were still activating all those organizing trunk muscles while the girls were missing out on those great sensory motor rich experiences.   

You Tube:  Sit Crawl Sit compliments of www.royalnobody.com

                                                           What’s this about?