Crawling

On All 4's (hands and knees):

Crawling is an exciting skill to work on. You might see your little one attempt on their own after practicing all 4’s as instructed in our last video. If they hold all 4's easily and are rocking forward and back but can’t seem to take steps, the video below will show you how to help them. You want reciprocal movement, one knee and one hand at a time, like you would do when crawling. Things to look out for:

• Bunny hopping = both knees come forward at the same time. The ability to reciprocate movements will be important for overall coordination from side to side and a building block for future skills

• Tripod crawling = on one knee with the other foot on the floor pushing off. This shows a heavy weight shifting preference which can indicate asymmetries in strength and affect walking and other skills.

• Scooting on their bottoms = often you will see this in babies who didn't get a lot of tummy time and love to sit up. All babies are different and if this is how they get around it is ok. They will need to be able to tolerate being on their knees at some point in order to pull to stand. I have often seen little ones in the clinic that are delayed because they get stuck in their progression of skills because they only want to stay in the sitting position. This is because they haven't strengthened their arms, hips, trunk in a way that is needed to approach furniture in a successful way to pull to stand and maintain a standing position at furniture. If they have a weight shifting preference or don't shift side to side when scooting, this compounds the difficulty when trying to progress their skills. If you have a bottom scooter, I would encourage you to check out the all 4's video to slowly get them used to being on all 4's so they can approach furniture.

  
  

Combat Crawling:

Crawling on their tummies, combat or army crawling, often happens between 6-8 months if they don't skip over this skill. This is normal! Ideally you want reciprocal back and forth movements, left then right, with the arms and legs. You do not want leaning to one side more than the other or moving both arms or both legs at the same time. To encourage them to come up onto all 4's, practice having them crawl up and over low safe obstacles like your leg or a rolled up beach towel. Little ones that eventually struggle to get up onto all 4's, often have core weakness which should be addressed if they are not progressing as expected.

Check out the video below on how to help your little one crawl on all 4's, after they have mastered holding/maintaining the all 4's position.

DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this blog is for informational purposes only. No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking new activities. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or viewed in this blog.