Crawling represents an important step in a child’s development. It’s cute, it’s exciting and let’s be honest, most of our little ones the first step towards mobility. Usually you start calling your loved ones and end up posting it on your social media.
It is a step that we take as an essential something. But with a growing number of children skipping this phase, there has been a debate regarding this issue, raising some doubts about the real need for this step for your baby’s development. In our opinion, we have found that crawling is necessary and essential for your baby’s early development .
It could mean the difference between them properly grabbing a pencil later in school, having the strength in your upper right body to get up off the floor, or getting that lateral movement your brain needs to finally read, write, and understand. Even outside of education, there are a host of benefits your child can reap if he learns to crawl.
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Importance of helping your baby crawl
Although for some the crawling phase can be skipped without problems for your baby, we consider that the crawling stage is more beneficial for your baby, it will allow him to develop better psychomotor skills, strength, he will be more autonomous and will be a stimulant for his instinct of exploration . Below we detail the importance of the crawling phase from the physical, spatial, mental and visual point of view; so that you can draw your own conclusions
Physical
Crawling has multiple physical benefits for your baby. Increase your gross and fine motor skills (large and refined movements), balance, hand-eye coordination, and overall strength, to name a few. Developing and refining these skills will help your child later in life in activities such as: running, jumping, writing, holding clothes, and throwing balls . The strength they build also increases their posture and prepares them for walking.
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Space
Who would have thought that crawling could improve your child’s problem solving skills? As your child maneuvers around him, discover the distance and placement of objects. Through trial and error you will also learn that you need to line up around obstacles, that you cannot climb or crawl through them. So your baby creates a new path, then he is developing and implementing basic skills necessary to solve problems.
Visual
Finding out the distance and placement of objects also helps your baby’s vision. Examining a distant object and then refocusing on your hands to reach that object forces your eyes to adjust to the different distances, as well as encouraging your eyes to work together. This development will help you with later skills such as: catching, driving, or copying words from a board.
Mental
Have you ever heard of the left and right brain? Well, for their best function, both sides of the brain need to be in full communication with each other and their ability to communicate is not an entirely innate ability. There are things you need to do to encourage these two parties to work together, and crawling is a big step. The movements required for crawling make the two sides of your baby’s brain interact, which, in turn, improves coordination.
Another mental benefit and one of my personal favorites to witness is self-confidence. Your child learns about taking risks, the failure and success that comes from those risks. They also learn to make decisions about destination and speed, the pleasure of reaching goals. This is a benefit that you can easily witness as your child grows, prepares, and becomes more determined in his movements. Smiling and clapping, continuing to reach for your favorite toy or person doesn’t hurt either.
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Ways to help your baby crawl
Now that you know the importance of helping your baby crawl from the time they are babies, you are probably wondering how to encourage him to crawl, rather than jump into the walking phase.
Upside down time
A great place to start is to ensure that your baby receives a lot of tummy time. The time your baby spends on his tummy makes it easier for him to roll over, which helps him get a better feel for the crawling movement. It also allows him to stretch, play with toys, and explore around him. Most importantly, it gives your baby a chance to lift his head to strengthen his head and neck muscles.
Too much back time can flatten your baby’s skull and develop a misshapen head. Find a good spot on the floor, with no sharp or dangerous objects around, and place a soft blanket under the baby. If your child hates tummy time, try getting down on the floor with him for more fun.
Talk to your baby or place a mirror in front of her face, so she can have fun looking at her own reflection. Squeaky toys capture his attention or if you prefer you can put his favorite toy out of reach to stimulate his curiosity and he can begin to crawl towards the toy.
Toys
Toys are one of the most attractive things to encourage your baby to crawl . Push toys help your baby get him to crawl behind them, or if he rolls a soft ball on the ground, it encourages him to chase the ball.
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Obstacle course
Try doing an obstacle course using soft pillows and cushions so your baby can climb and crawl. You can also chase him down by getting into the same crawling position through the obstacle course, to build the self-confidence to crawl easily.
Types of crawling
There is no right or wrong way to get your baby to crawl, but there are different types of crawling to encourage him to try. It is not the traditional crawling method of moving forward, but you should also make your child crawl backwards. This will help you to work your different muscles, stimulate head and neck movements, and you can also move your legs in different ways.
As your baby begins to master crawling, have him act like a bear crawling on the floor. Bear crawling can be done in the following way: it crawls with its arms and legs straight, rather than bending over. You can also get him to kite on the ground on his cheeks. All of these exercises help your child develop gross and fine motor skills.
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