Season 1, Episode 8: Crawling
-
In the podcast episode titled “Baby Myths Busted: Crawling,” the discussion revolves around the development of crawling in infants. Typically beginning around six to seven months, babies start by getting up on their hands and knees before transitioning into smooth crawling movements. The importance of proper body positioning, movements, and repetition of good quality movements for effective crawling is emphasized. Various crawling styles such as hands and knees or cross crawl are mentioned, with a focus on allowing infants to explore different positions to aid in their development.
The text also delves into the significance of mastering simpler movements before complex ones like crawling, and the impact of proper crawling on knee development and overall stability. Different crawling patterns observed in infants, such as commando crawling or crab crawl, are discussed, highlighting how they can affect motor skills and development. The conversation stresses the importance of tummy time for infants and the benefits of mastering crawling by nine months to support motor skills and cognitive development. Parents are encouraged to guide their children towards adopting the correct crawling pattern for optimal physical development.
-
Unraveling Baby Myths: The Journey of Crawling
Have you ever wondered about the fascinating world of infant development, particularly the milestone of crawling? In a recent enlightening podcast episode titled “Baby Myths Busted: Crawling,” experts dive deep into the intricacies of this crucial phase in a baby’s life.
Picture this: a tiny human, just around six to seven months old, embarking on a journey that will shape their motor skills and cognitive abilities. It all starts with those adorable attempts to lift themselves onto their hands and knees, a prelude to the mesmerizing act of crawling.
But wait, there’s more! The discussion in this episode goes beyond the surface level of crawling. It delves into the significance of proper body positioning, the beauty of different crawling styles like hands and knees or cross crawl, and the importance of allowing infants to explore varied positions for optimal development.
What caught my attention was the emphasis on mastering simpler movements before diving into complex ones like crawling. It’s like building a strong foundation before constructing a magnificent building. The impact of correct crawling on knee development and overall stability is highlighted, shedding light on how something as seemingly simple as crawling can have profound effects.
Ever heard of commando crawling or crab crawl? These different crawling patterns aren’t just adorable quirks; they play a crucial role in shaping motor skills and development in infants. And here’s an interesting tidbit: did you know that mastering crawling by nine months can significantly boost both motor skills and cognitive development in babies?
Parents, this is where your guidance becomes pivotal. Encouraging your little ones to adopt the right crawling pattern can set them on the path to optimal physical development. Tummy time isn’t just a cute phrase—it’s a key ingredient in this developmental recipe.
So, if you’re intrigued by the magic of infant development and want to unlock the secrets of crawling, tune in to this podcast episode. Let’s bust those baby myths and embark on a journey of exploration and growth together!
-
Show Notes: Baby Myths Busted: Crawling
Main Theme: Developmental Milestones and Importance of Crawling
Introduction: The podcast episode focuses on the development of crawling in infants, a significant milestone typically observed around six to seven months of age.
Crawling Progression: The discussion highlights how babies initially learn to get up on their hands and knees before transitioning into smooth crawling movements, emphasizing the importance of proper body positioning and movements.
Crawling Styles: Various crawling styles such as hands and knees or cross crawl are explored, with an emphasis on allowing infants to experiment with different positions to aid in their overall development.
Movement Mastery: The text stresses the significance of mastering simpler movements before progressing to complex ones like crawling, underscoring how proper crawling impacts knee development and overall stability.
Crawling Patterns: Different crawling patterns like commando crawling or crab crawl are discussed, shedding light on how they can influence motor skills and developmental progress in infants.
Tummy Time Benefits: The conversation underlines the importance of tummy time for infants and the advantages of mastering crawling by nine months to support both motor skills and cognitive development.
Parental Guidance: Parents are encouraged to guide their children towards adopting the correct crawling pattern to optimize physical development, thereby supporting their overall growth and well-being.
-
00:22 - 00:25
Hello everyone, welcome back again to our podcast, Baby Myths Busted.
00:26 - 00:29
I am Jackie and this is Simon. Hello, Simon. Hello, Jackie.
00:30 - 00:33
Today, we are talking about crawling.
00:33 - 00:43
We've just learnt about sitting last episode and Simon mentioned that sitting and crawling often
00:43 - 00:46
go hand in terms of timing of milestones.
00:46 - 00:50
So are we talking eight to 10 months then?
00:50 - 00:55
Yeah, so sitting is more of an eight to 10 month old developmental pattern where crawling is
00:55 - 01:00
more like you'll start to see them at least get up on their hands and knees, maybe about six
01:00 - 01:06
months, maybe seven months, or they start to want to look like they're trying to crawl around
01:06 - 01:09
seven months and then by nine months, they've nailed their crawling.
01:10 - 01:17
So they could be interested from around six months, seven months, but not actually crawling
01:17 - 01:23
for another month or two. Not crawling smoothly. All right, smoothly.
01:23 - 01:25
Okay, so what will we see?
01:25 - 01:32
They'll get up on their hands and knees and then they just stay in that position or do they shift?
01:32 - 01:37
So if you put them on their belly and they then develop the way they get up onto their hands
01:37 - 01:42
and knees, you'll see them press themselves, their hands into the floor so they've got straight
01:42 - 01:44
arms or they press themselves up like a seal.
01:44 - 01:46
Yep, so they're in their tummy time and then they do.
01:46 - 01:50
Yeah, so they straighten their arms and press themselves all the way up so they're balancing
01:50 - 01:53
on their hands and probably the top of their thighs as the support signs.
01:53 - 01:58
And then they'll be able to develop moving one knee up and underneath themselves.
01:59 - 02:03
And so you'll have one leg out straight, one leg bent, and then they'll figure out that they
02:03 - 02:09
can impress the knee that's been bent up into the floor and that brings the other leg forward
02:09 - 02:13
and now they're on their hands and knees in a quadruped position. Yeah, that's so cool.
02:13 - 02:17
That is how they'll do it or they should do it.
02:17 - 02:22
And then from there, they'll be on their hands and knees and they're trying to figure out, all
02:22 - 02:25
right, how do I move in this position? What do I do?
02:25 - 02:29
And the most common thing you'll see first is they'll start to rock back and forwards.
02:29 - 02:32
Little pumps as we call them, little crawling pumps.
02:32 - 02:39
And once they've started to realise that my hips can go like this, my arms can go like this,
02:39 - 02:43
then they'll start experimenting on maybe having three bases of support.
02:43 - 02:48
So having one arm, two knees and one arm, two legs, and then reaching for a toy with one arm
02:48 - 02:49
or whatever that might be.
02:49 - 02:51
And then they're like, oh, cool.
02:51 - 02:55
So I can actually do this now with three points or maybe I'll do it with two points.
02:55 - 03:00
And then as soon as you've got two points, then you're going to start to see some crawling or falling over.
03:00 - 03:06
They might go one arm out and they move the corresponding knee to be able to pull themselves forward or whatever else.
03:06 - 03:09
And then they can't hold their weight, so they just fall on their face.
03:09 - 03:13
But that is all part of the experimentation of learning how to crawl.
03:13 - 03:18
And once you've nailed crawling, it should be on hands and knees.
03:18 - 03:20
The back should look super straight.
03:20 - 03:26
There shouldn't be a curve in it. Should look super straight. Shoulders should be relaxed.
03:26 - 03:32
Back of the neck should be nice and long like we touched on with the sitting position in the last episode about sitting.
03:32 - 03:37
Should be nice and long so everything looks like it's in a dead straight line. Everything looks relaxed.
03:37 - 03:41
Fingers should be facing forward in the direction of travel.
03:42 - 03:46
Knees should be, and with hands, about just a bit outside shoulder width.
03:46 - 03:47
Not too wide, not too narrow.
03:48 - 03:51
Knees should be just outside hip width, like in line with your hands.
03:51 - 03:56
And feet should be slightly inside the line of your knees, so your big toes are almost touching
03:56 - 03:59
as you're trying moving forward through the movement.
04:00 - 04:06
Your shins should be nice and relaxed and flat on the floor, not with your feet held up in the air.
04:06 - 04:07
Like pointed toes and yeah.
04:08 - 04:09
Yeah, you shouldn't have that.
04:09 - 04:14
And once you establish that, you'll reach, so you might reach forward with your left hand and
04:14 - 04:23
you'll drag at the same time, you'll drag your right knee up towards your right hand and then you'll swap. And that is crawling.
04:23 - 04:33
So this is just like an innate thing that the babies just naturally go to, which is fascinating.
04:33 - 04:34
It's such a complex movement.
04:34 - 04:41
All the elements in crawling have already been learnt by the baby. Ah, okay.
04:41 - 04:46
All right, so tummy time, that three month position, and you're trying to press your head up
04:46 - 04:47
off the ground so you can look at things.
04:48 - 04:53
And four and a half months old, when you try and roll over for the first time, those two parts,
04:53 - 04:59
so those two components, set the foundation for your ability to crawl. Okay, so it's off.
04:59 - 05:07
To stabilise yourself with what comes out of the being on your belly position and then to move
05:07 - 05:13
your arms while something else is being supported comes from your rolling pattern.
05:14 - 05:20
So if you get those two components right, you get the support part, which comes from your three
05:20 - 05:22
month belly position, pressing your head up in the air.
05:22 - 05:28
And then your rolling is more to do with the swinging of your arms and your legs component,
05:28 - 05:31
lifting them up to move, all comes from your rolling.
05:31 - 05:36
So you need those two bits to be really well, or really well patterned for crawling to have
05:36 - 05:38
the best opportunity to be great.
05:38 - 05:47
And so if you stuff one of those up, the child will have difficulty getting into this quadruped
05:47 - 05:50
position or won't be able to get into it?
05:51 - 05:56
Yeah, they'll either find it difficult or the position won't be great, even though they can get into it.
05:56 - 06:02
They'll just be using other muscles or another pattern to do it, or they'll just never get there. Okay.
06:02 - 06:07
And I know you see a lot of people in your physio clinic who you can tell pretty well straight
06:07 - 06:09
away that they never crawled.
06:09 - 06:14
You can see that they haven't developed that pattern and it comes out later on in the way that they move.
06:14 - 06:15
Yeah, the tin man gait.
06:15 - 06:17
Oh yeah, I can imagine that.
06:17 - 06:25
And so the way that they get the patterning working appropriately to enable them to get into
06:25 - 06:33
these positions to crawl, that's just repetition of good quality rolling and supporting yourself
06:33 - 06:35
on your belly and that type of thing.
06:35 - 06:41
Yeah, it's just repetition of good patterns of all of the movements that precede crawling.
06:41 - 06:49
So you said in our episode about sitting, once they can sit, like they'll fatigue quickly, but
06:49 - 06:51
don't just put them into sitting all the time.
06:51 - 06:56
Put them down on their belly, on their back, on their side, whatever, and let them continue
06:56 - 07:00
to go through that pattern to get to the sitting position over and over and over.
07:01 - 07:05
So they'll just keep getting better and better at it and get into the sitting position easier
07:05 - 07:11
and then that'll help with other movements like this, or get them, put them on the back so then
07:11 - 07:14
they can roll and get themselves into this crawling position.
07:14 - 07:19
The same prerequisites for sitting are the ones for crawling. Yeah, yeah.
07:19 - 07:22
So if you're practicing for one, you're practicing for the other.
07:22 - 07:27
And that's why you just never let them, once they can sit, don't just pop them on their belly again. Yeah, yeah.
07:27 - 07:30
It's not like the other stuff is over. Yeah.
07:30 - 07:33
You've got to keep on making the pattern stronger and stronger.
07:33 - 07:39
Now there's lots of different types of crawling. No, there's not. Yeah, okay.
07:39 - 07:46
Okay, before we go through that, we obviously, I'm thinking you're going to say no, we are to
07:46 - 07:53
encourage crawling, or is there anything that we can do to help? You can encourage crawling.
07:54 - 07:56
Yeah, but not by moving them.
07:56 - 07:57
No, you don't move them.
07:58 - 08:01
You just have something that attracts their attention. Okay.
08:01 - 08:05
Once they're up on all fours, then you can do whatever you want to make them feel like they
08:05 - 08:08
want to go towards you or follow something or chase something or whatever.
08:08 - 08:10
So shift their toy a bit further away. Yeah, absolutely.
08:10 - 08:15
Or have your keys rattling or whatever that might be that they really like, and then just see
08:15 - 08:19
if that's enough of a motivating factor for them to try and figure out how to do it. Okay.
08:19 - 08:21
Like we've touched on it on a previous episode, our eldest.
08:21 - 08:27
We had just some old nothing ball that we found in the house, and we used to roll it in front
08:27 - 08:32
of him, and that used to be the motivating factor for him to crawl. Yeah. A crawling ball.
08:32 - 08:37
So it doesn't have to be anything, he just used to try and crawl after this ball the entire time.
08:37 - 08:39
I think it was just exciting because it moved. Yeah.
08:40 - 08:41
All right, so a crawling ball?
08:41 - 08:47
Doesn't have to be anything, and once they're up on their hands and knees, that's pretty motivating
08:47 - 08:51
in itself to then go and explore. Yeah, true. That's very exciting. Oh, cool. I'm up here.
08:51 - 08:53
What can I do with this? Yeah.
08:53 - 08:54
Or maybe I can go over to the couch.
08:54 - 08:56
Maybe I can go over here. Yeah.
08:56 - 09:03
And so good crawling looks like opposite arm to leg, nice and straight down the spine, head on, straight.
09:03 - 09:10
And apparently there are all these other different types of crawling. On. Yeah. Yeah.
09:10 - 09:18
So you've got your classic hands and knees or cross crawl. That's the only one. That's the only way. That's what we've described. It's
09:41 - 09:42
not
09:53 - 09:56
the classic.
10:21 - 10:21
It's
10:33 - 10:34
then
10:47 - 10:48
only. Yeah.
11:46 - 11:47
This
13:04 - 13:04
isn't
14:05 - 14:07
army nformation.
14:11 - 14:13
This this
20:57 - 21:06
And then after that, you're gonna go into like pulling yourself up to stand and then you get into walking. So we're nearly there. Nearly upright. Yep.
21:06 - 21:13
But all of those things and what we've spoken about already are affected by DayDot. Yep. Yep. Okay.
21:13 - 21:16
Anything else you want to talk to us about crawling?
21:16 - 21:19
There's plenty of research out there for those kids who don't crawl properly.
21:19 - 21:21
They just don't learn as well. Oh, really? Yeah.
21:21 - 21:24
Because you're actually utilising both sides of your body.
21:24 - 21:26
So you're utilising both sides of your brain.
21:26 - 21:30
So then you've got the opportunity to develop these patterns between your creative side and
21:30 - 21:32
your cognitive side or whatever.
21:32 - 21:39
And so if you don't have both developed, then learning opportunities are lessened. Yeah. That's interesting.
21:40 - 21:42
There's plenty of evidence on that now. Yeah. It makes sense.
21:42 - 21:43
The evidence has been around for ages.
21:44 - 21:51
But now we're just getting too soft on these as parents who actually want to make our kids do
21:51 - 21:52
something that's useful for them. Yeah.
21:52 - 21:56
And I suppose maybe when they're first starting to crawl and they're propping themselves up
21:56 - 21:59
a little bit, they might whinge a bit because they feel like, oh, I want to get across the other
21:59 - 22:03
side of the room, but I don't know how. Yeah. Let them whinge. Yeah. Let them whinge.
22:03 - 22:04
You can get through the tummy time.
22:04 - 22:06
You can get through this. Yeah.
22:06 - 22:09
This is, once you got through tummy time, that's the worst of it.
22:09 - 22:11
If they're going to whinge at something, it's going to be tummy time. Yeah.
22:11 - 22:14
Or on their back if they've got some reflux issues or something.
22:14 - 22:18
But once they're up and moving around, like all of those issues go away. Yeah. Okay. All right.
22:18 - 22:21
That's probably one of the most straightforward ones we've gone through, I think.
22:21 - 22:23
There's only one way to crawl.
22:23 - 22:24
Can I just emphasize that? Yeah.
22:24 - 22:26
There is no other way. Yeah.
22:26 - 22:33
You might see a commando crawl initially starting to crawl if they can't hold themselves up in a quadruped position.
22:33 - 22:39
If they can't hold themselves up on their hands and knees and they drop down and commando to
22:39 - 22:42
a toy or something, that's okay for a couple of weeks. Yeah.
22:42 - 22:46
But then they should be developing the pattern to be able to crawl normally.
22:46 - 22:50
I've just had a kid who was purely commando crawling.
22:50 - 22:59
She's maybe 11 months old now and it took us, it's taken us three weeks to then get her up on
22:59 - 23:07
her hands and knees more and starting to take more and more steps in a normalized crawling pattern. Yeah.
23:07 - 23:10
So you can change it. Yeah.
23:10 - 23:12
It just takes a little bit of work.
23:12 - 23:17
And I think parents just need to realize it's important to change because I know there's heaps
23:17 - 23:19
of kids out there that just commando crawl.
23:19 - 23:22
And I think parents think it's a normal thing and it's a funny thing.
23:22 - 23:27
It's a normal thing because of whatever article you pulled those different crawling things off
23:27 - 23:28
and go, no, that's fine.
23:28 - 23:29
There's about six different ways to crawl.
23:29 - 23:30
There's six different ways to crawl.
23:30 - 23:33
They're all fine in themselves or everyone, every kid's an individual. Yeah, that's great.
23:33 - 23:35
They might be an individual, but there's only one way to crawl.
23:36 - 23:39
It's on hands and knees, opposite arm, opposite leg. That is it. No other way.
23:40 - 23:46
It's called a classic crawl for a reason because humankind has done it forever. Yes. Good. All right.
23:46 - 23:47
I think that's it for crawling.
23:47 - 23:49
Yeah, I'll get angry if we keep talking.
23:49 - 23:50
Yeah, I can sense it.
23:50 - 23:55
So we better tie it up there before Simon loses control. All right.
23:55 - 23:57
Thank you for listening, everybody. That was crawling.
23:57 - 24:00
We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye.
