Why is crawling important?

We see kids crawling in different ways – so which way is the correct way?

The correct way is for the baby to place weight on his straight arms and bent hips and knees. Crawl contra-laterality by moving forward with his left hand and right knee at the same time and vice versa.

What are the benefits of crawling?

• Provides weight-bearing – Weight bearing (deep pressure input) is one of the systems responsible for postural control. They baby receives deep pressure input on his shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips and knees

• Provides vestibular (movement) input – The baby’s head isn’t in the upright position and thus the vestibular system is triggered. The vestibular system is the other system responsible for postural control

• Improves postural control – As both the above mentioned proprioceptive and vestibular systems are stimulated during crawling

• Improves eye-hand coordination – The baby can see his hands and uses his eyes together with his hands to explore his environment by picking up and playing with objects

• Provides touch input – The baby touches different textures with the palms of his hands thus integrating the touch system

• Improves bilateral integration – Crawling is done by making the same movements by the opposite sides of the body

• Improves motor planning – Leaning a new movement sequence needs a lot of planning of the body parts working together

• Learning about the environment – Crawling provides a different view point of his environment and the child can now move to explore his surroundings

• Learning about my body – The child can now crawl over/under different objects and this help the baby to learn about the perimeters of his body and what his body is capable of