I remember when my oldest daughter was of crawling age, she didn’t crawl. People told me how important it was to crawl, how I should have her checked out and how perhaps there was something wrong with her. The truth of the matter is, when it comes to gross motor skills, she’s always been a little slow. She gets there eventually, but she’s always at the end of what is considered “normal”. Interestingly, she’s a very good artist. But the point is, the common wisdom of the day was that babies should crawl.
Skipping the crawling stage, is apparently becoming an increasing problem. Researchers are now saying that babies are not being held enough but are too often in their bouncy seats, in the stroller or in the swing and not getting enough tummy time. Lack of tummy time leads to a lack of crawling and this can cause problems later on.
Lack of Tummy Time
I have always thought that putting your newborn on their tummy for a certain period of time during the day was a dumb idea. I know that doctors recommend it but it doesn’t make sense to me. However, neither did my kids see much of their strollers or of their swings and bouncy seats. I mostly wore them around the house.
However, once they could hold their heads up, and once they could roll, putting them on a blanket on the floor seemed like a good idea. Researchers say that this is precisely what you should do so that babies will learn to crawl. Apparently, the motion of putting one hand up while simultaneously moving the opposite leg (which is what you do in crawling) is very good training for the brain. You could almost consider crawling pre-reading. Kids who skipped crawling, are also prone to academic difficulties due to letter reversals.
I think the idea is, hold your baby and let him wriggle around on the floor as much as possible. Bouncy seats and swings might seem like a great idea, but they are a little over rated. While you don’t need to start putting him on the floor as soon as he comes home from the hospital, letting him play on the floor as he wants is not a bad idea starting at around 6 weeks.