It’s important for a child’s development that they crawl before they walk. Not only for physical development but the cross patterning action (opposite hand to foot) used in traditional crawling is important for brain development. If a child skips crawling and goes straight to walking, or if they crawl in a non-traditional way (bottom scooting etc) it can sometimes cause problems later on with things like co-ordination, reading and writing.
Noey is a commando crawler. He sometimes cross patterns when he commando crawls but sometimes he is all arms and no legs as he slithers across the floor. He’s not the least bit interested in crawling on his hands and knees in the traditional way. The only time he gets on his hands and knees is when he is about to pull himself up on something. At the moment he is pulling up on everything and even attempting to stand on his own, which is fun and exciting, but I really want him to crawl, properly, before he decides to walk.
So this morning, while Noey was sleeping, Morgan and I made him a little surprise.
We removed the label form a 1.25 litre PET bottle, rinsed it out then filled it with a little water. We hunted through the craft cupboard to find various brightly coloured sparkly things that would fit into the bottle. We just happened to have a huge collected of sparkly pony beads, some other coloured beads, some large sequins and a few foam shapes, a good variety of things that would float and sink. Then with glued the lid on tight and waited for Noey to wake up.
Ok, so rolling the sparkly bottle around the floor and having Noey chase didn’t exactly get him to crawl on his hands and knees the whole time, and considering how fast he can commando crawl it probably never will. But it was lots of fun to make and both boys had lots of fun chasing it around the floor and shaking it up. So the two minutes it took to make it was time well spent.
So what are you playing today? Pop on over to Childhood101’s We Play link up to see lots more inspirational ideas.
Kylie says
Is there new research on crawling? As when I did my Early Childhood Degree, which I am sure was not that long ago, we were told, and the milestone books said, that crawling wasn’t essential and it was one of the few actions that really wasn’t a milestone per se. Having been in a splint for 9 months as a baby I never crawled, I came out of my splint around 1 year and then walked, as did my brother (he was also in a splint). There are many cultures where children spend most of their time on their mothers back or front in a sling, many cultures up to a year old or more, and then proceeded to walk on leaving the sling. It has always been an interesting topic, the way in which we develop our skills.
katef says
It’s not crawling as much as ‘cross patterning’ as in using alternate hands and feet at the same time. Lots of other activities use cross patterning but crawling is usually the first of those. Even babies who are in a sling a lot or those in splints usually have a brief time where they ‘crawl’….
Research seems to differ on how important this is at the moment but I’m a big believer having seen several children struggle with things like choosing a hand, co-ordination and older children struggling to read and especially spell and write. I worked with a fabulous OT who would re-teach older children to cross pattern (crawling and other activities) to help them with lots of developmental issues and saw her work wonders.. so I am probably a little biased! LOL
Zoe says
When I did my ECE training last year I was told about encouraging cross patterning, which included crawling as the first cross patterning movement.
We were taught activities which would encourage this for children who didn’t crawl, were slower with reading/writing, or were a bit uncoordinated. So it’s not a necessity per se but helpful for development. I think the research we saw related to curbing dyslexia in young children with cross patterning.
Narelle says
Ohhh, pretty! I love how it’s the simple things that babies/kids like best! I filled up some old drink bottles with different things (flour, pasta, water, etc) when my son was little and we used them as skittles – so much fun!
Megan at Writing Out Loud says
Gorgeous idea for a baby toy!
Mama Pea Pod says
I love the simplicity of this idea! Would be great to add in some glitter too, if you had any.
SquiggleMum says
Super cute photos!! xx
Becky from beckyandjames says
This is great! I think my Little Man would love this, I will have to remember as all our craft things are at our house we’re selling 5 hours away!
Michelle says
What an adorable little boy and what a great toy too!!
bec says
My little man is also a commando crawler and has just started pulling himself to stand on furniture (and not yet 7 months). This is a fab idea to keep him on the ground. Thanks for sharing, I know what we’ll be doing tomorrow!
Green Mama says
Kate both of my girls commando crawled for months, and our M&CH nurse expected them to move straight to walking, but they both crawled on their hands and knees for around 3 months before walking properly. How cute is he? Just what I need, to feel clucky in the morning!
Glowless says
Very cool and sparkly!! Tricky’s favourite toy when he was learning to crawl was a 600mL bottle with 100s & 1000s in it :) He still fishes it out every now and then to have a shake of it.
Francesca says
My second child was a bottom scooter! I hate to think what this might mean for his co ordination, paticularly reading and writing which he has shown no interest in whatsoever. My eldest was always really interested to learn numbers and letters from an early age. I wish we’d known this when my second was bottom scootin’. Everyone, myself included, thought it was pretty weird.
Kathleen Allgood says
Thanks for this fun activity & your wonderful blog! Just a comment: Crawling also provides weight bearing on hands, through elbows, to shoulders and facilitates stabilization of the neck & subsequently the eyes of babies :D Cross crawling is helpful, but weight bearing is essential for upper extremity skill development, which builds upon stability of the trunk. TOO many children are being left in equipment (car seats, infant seats, baby jumpers, baby walkers, baby swings, etc.) resulting, frankly, in “bucket baby” syndrome (unofficial professional observation as children’s fine motor skills have been declining the past few decades) the impact is often not noticed until school age? So, not that this would apply to anyone on this site, but please encourage baby tummy time! It is more important than you can imagine! This also impacts visual perception and integration of three dimensional space, and possibly even reading skills…fyi~