Hold All 4's
- Apr 1
- 2 min read
All 4's, on hands and knees, is a pre-crawling skill and if you build strength and endurance in a systematic way, you will find they tend to be successful at crawling on all 4's sooner. Once they have mastered getting into and out of sitting, this is often the time they will show interest in getting on all 4's. Sometimes you will see it before when they push up when in tummy time but often it is them trying to come up to sitting.
Keeping toys out of sight is going to be important as little ones tend to just dive for the toys and flatten to their tummies. If you keep the weight back with their hips over their feet in heel sitting, it will be less work on the core and less weight into the arms which makes it easier to start. It also will block their desire to kick out heavily by straighten the legs. Often in the beginning their legs movements are all or none, fully bent or fully straight, when attempting this position. They lack the midrange movement patterns and overall endurance and strength needed for crawling. Progression of weight shifting forward encourages control in the midrange movements of the shoulders and hips needed for crawling. Weight bearing into all 4 extremities should be equal side to side without a heavy shift or preference to the left or right as well. This might lead to asymmetrical crawling only encouraging strength asymmetries that can affect future skills.
There are two things you want to avoid if possible when trying to help them hold the all 4's position. First is pushing their bottoms to lift them up, will only encourage to sit back and not lift up more onto their knees. The second is lifting or supporting them at their chests or stomachs. We need the shoulders, trunk, and hips to engage and strengthen so they can tolerate and hold all 4's in preparation for crawling. If you are doing this for them, it will take much longer and often they will not attempt to help. I have found the strategy shown in the video below tends to get them there faster. If your little one will only tolerate if you lift or support their core, try to lift as little as possible.
Check out this video to learn the progression of movement and toy placement in all 4's.
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