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| BABY DEVELOPMENT |
25 / 01 / 07 |
Learning to crawl |  | |
What happens, when
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| Building blocks to crawling
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Once your baby can sit up unaided, anytime from around six months, it won't be too long before he's rocking forward onto his hands and knees ready to work on getting about under his own steam. The first thing to say about crawling, however, is that not all babies do it: Some babies like to get themselves around by shuffling on their bottoms, some babies like to 'commando crawl', dragging their body around with their arms without much help from the legs, and some babies decide that they're going to move straight on to standing. Style isn't important though, what is, is that he's learning to get around independently.
If your baby does develop a true crawl, it's very unlikely that he'll do so before six months. Once your baby is sitting well unaided he'll move on to developing new skills key to crawling, the first being how to move from sitting to lying to sitting again smoothly. This isn't all that easy when you think about it, there's the question of how to transfer your weight forwards without toppling over and what to do with those legs. Over the next few weeks your baby will work out how to get himself up and down while staying stable.
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| Rocking on hands and knees
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In the process of learning this movement, your baby will probably spend time on his hands and knees, and at some point will discover that he can stay in this position and rock back and forth. This doesn't mean that he's about to crawl, as it may take a few weeks before he realises that he can gain momentum to move about by rocking. He might also spend a fair amount of time with his head buried into the floor as he tries to work out how to move forward. It's not uncommon for babies to start off crawling backwards in fact, and if he's already found that he can move around quite quickly by shuffling or dragging then he might not bother with a true crawl at all.
What you can do to help
As with sitting, the first thing you can do is to make your baby's environment conducive to him experimenting with new movements. Even when your baby can sit confidently for a while, he's still quite likely to lose his balance and come toppling to the floor, backwards and forwards, as he learns how to move from sitting to lying and vice versa. Make sure that his play area is sufficiently soft and padded, particularly if you have hard floors. Encourage him to move beyond his sphere of reach by placing toys just out of range, sitting a little further away from him and using toys that roll as you play.
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| On the move
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As he begins to get mobile you can help him gain strength and confidence by giving him low, soft obstacles to get over, like cushions (you'll need to stay with him as he plays like this) and encourage him to move a little further each day by increasing the distance you put between him and a desirable object.
Developing these important skills will mean that your baby can amuse himself for longer periods of time, and there will probably be times when your baby simply wants to be left alone to get on with things without you distracting him. However, once your baby does start to move around he's quite likely to pick up stamina and speed at a surprising rate. This will mean you have to take care in a raft of new ways, from re-checking your baby proofing to being very aware of where he is at all times not least so that you don't stand or trip on him! When you're not actively playing with him do keep an eye on him and chat to him at intervals. If you have wooden or hard floors then you'll need to take extra care and grippy socks will be useful to give him some traction. You might find a playpen or travel cot is handy to keep him safe occasionally while you need to do things like take a shower or answer the phone.
And of course, just when you think you're getting a handle on keeping up with him he'll begin to reach up and pull himself up on whatever he can find to support himself so he can get to his feet and stand...
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