Pivoting in Tummy Time
- Mar 30
- 3 min read
By the time your baby is reaching for toys in front of them, they often appear they want to move and maybe even crawl. What we want to encourage at this stage is pivoting. At this point, you cannot have too much tummy time. You may be starting to practice sitting at this time, but until they can get up to sitting on their own, tummy time pivoting is what you want them to spend the most time encouraging in order to get a jump start on the skills after sitting.
Pivoting is when they push up on their hands and turn in a circular motion to face another direction. It may be to look and face something behind them or get a toy that has rolled next to their waist or feet. Sometimes they won't push fully on their hands but move on their elbows and forearms. Taking "steps" with their hands to pivot in circles starts working on the weight shifting needed to get them into and out of sitting and ultimately will be used to master crawling. In many cases, pivoting in circles tends to help more than crawling forward on their tummies (combat crawling) in preparation for crawling on all 4's (hands and knees). Pivoting forces the weight shifting right to left and lifting of their chest, and eventually their hips, off the floor. When combat crawling, they can keep weight on one side, stay low on their chest/trunk, and don't have to reciprocate and weight shift on the arms. Ideally, pivoting is circles vs trying to combat crawling forward is what I recommend to my patients when trying to strengthen and progress their skills. It is completely normal to combat crawl so don't worry if they are doing this. We just want them to pivot more to work on the weight shifting sequencing of their arms while lifting their chests off the floor.
To encourage pivoting, face them towards the wall and put toys to their sides. If you and all the light, sound, and movement are behind them, they will want to turn their heads and eventually their bodies to find you. Placing toys to the sides close to them vs to the side further away will encourage pivoting vs rolling to get to the object. If they rest their head in the floor and reach back for the toy, the toy needs to be placed out of reach, closer to their feet. I actually love seeing this because it shows they are trying to figure it out! Give them some time to try! I like to count to at least 10 slowly before I start helping them if it is their first time. If they have been doing it a while, you may give more time. We don't want them to get too frustrated but we do want to give them enough time to try to manage on their own. You can shake the toy to show them but place it down after and you may want to step away, out of reach. Often they stay fussy because they don't understand why you aren't handing them the toy.
Parents will often say, they know their child can pivot because they might turn away and the child is in a different position but never see them do it. Usually that means they are still learning and is taking a lot of effort and time for them to pivot. We want them to get to the point where they are consistent and efficient, where you can see it! Once you do, make sure they can pivot to the left and right. If they have a preference, then encourage the other side until they are equally strong.
Sometimes the little ones want to use their feet or knees to help with this movement. When they do this, the trunk is usually low on the floor and heads and arms too. Optimally, they are using mostly their arms lifting their chests and head off the floor. If you see the knee/leg come up to the side, push it down or bring legs together, to discourage. You can use socks without the sticky non-skid bottoms to help prevent pushing off the feet.
Check out the video on how to place your hands to help them as well as a visual on optimal toy placement.
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