Helping your baby learn to crawl

It’s important to keep in mind that many babies will likely be able to progress through the first year of infant milestones naturally and without much (if any) adult intervention. Babies are explorers by nature! However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be aware of how to lay a good foundation for your baby’s development and how to play with baby in a way that will encourage continued development of skills. The point of this post isn’t to make you over-think your baby’s development.

Lay a good foundation for the development of pre-crawling skills by:

• Encouraging tummy time from the very beginning, within the first few days of life. This doesn’t mean you have to just plop your baby flat on the floor on their tummy, let them scream, and curse your pediatrician’s name for saying you have to do tummy time with your baby. You can ease into it in order to meet your newborn where they’re at (which is at zero head control, right?), and then gradually increase the challenge as they become stronger and more engaged.
• Providing opportunities for playing on the floor on all four sides: left side, right side, back, and tummy. did you know babies need to work out the muscles along all four sides of the body in order to develop the strength and stability needed for later motor skills such as rolling, sitting, and crawling? It can be hard to remember to help babies lay on their sides during floor time, especially if they are young. However, side lying is important because it relieves pressure from the back of baby’s head, is an important part of preventing flat spots, helps babies practice their reaching and hand-eye coordination skills, and gets them ready to learn to roll!
• Encouraging activities to promote the development of rolling. rolling is baby’s first major motor milestone parents know to look for, and babies seem to tease us for weeks on end by acting like they’re on the brink of rolling, without actually doing the deed! On average, babies tend to first roll from tummy to back between 2-5 months, from back to side between 4-5.5 months, and from back to tummy between 5.5-7.5 months. Rolling is one of the first major contributors to the development of postural control as babies learn to transition between positions all by themselves while strengthening the muscles all around the four sides of the body.
• Encouraging the development of “functional sitting” through transitional positions.When babies develop functional sitting, they are able to get into sitting by themselves, and they understand how their body works in space in order to help them safely get out of the sitting position. Being able to maintain independent sitting balance requires the coordination of several muscle groups, which need to be strengthened through play and positioning that challenges all those muscle groups around the front, sides, and back of the body as they safely wobble and learn to regain their balance.
• Giving baby opportunities to belly crawl. Belly crawling is helpful in the progression leading up to hands-and-knees crawling because it gives babies a chance to practice coordinating all their flailing body parts in order to move forward. The movements involved in learning to belly crawl may appear kind of awkward at first and will probably look more like “belly scooting” than “belly crawling.” In order to learn to belly crawl, babies need access to two things: space and opportunities for practice!

Make photos of your baby trying to crawl, upload to the App. Write about his/her crawling attempts and success.