Crawling is a critical step in your child’s gross motor development. This is when your baby starts to independently move from one place to another – so exciting! This usually happens between 8-11 months of age, and they may start with crawling on the belly before going up onto the hands and knees. Here are 5 reasons why crawling is so, so important (trust us though, the benefits are countless!).
- STRENGTH: Crawling strengthens the trunk, shoulder girdles, and hip girdles. This builds a foundation to build gross motor skills on and leads to standing, walking, jumping, and so on.
- BILATERAL COORDINATION: Crawling fosters bilateral coordination by connecting the two sides of the brain. This teaches your baby how to disassociate their movement (moving one arm or leg at a time), which prepares them for walking by learning reciprocal movement patterns.
- SENSORY DEVELOPMENT: Crawling helps to develop your baby’s senses, such as sight (viewing their environment from a new perspective), sound (getting closer/further from certain sounds and processing what they hear), and touch (feeling different textures as they crawl throughout their environment).
- FINE MOTOR SKILLS: Crawling develops hand arches, which facilitates fine motor skill development (grasping, pinching small objects such as cheerios, picking up toys). This also makes it easier for your child to develop handwriting skills later on.
- VISUAL PROCESSING: Crawling helps your baby scan their environment, process what they see, and learn how to move their body accordingly.
If you are concerned about your child’s development, inquire about an appointment with one of our pediatric therapists at our Golden Gate location.