GM.A.39 ON TUMMY, GETS TO CRAWL POSITION AND ROCKS

To be able to get to sit from lying, and before she can crawl, the child needs to be able to get into a crawl position from her tummy. This requires good shoulder girdle control, and her back and tummy muscles must be strong enough to lift her tummy off the floor.

How to Assess

Method: Observe your child while she is on her tummy. Score plus if she bends her knees up under her tummy and pushes up on her hands into a crawl position, and maintains this position as she rocks back and forth.

How to Teach

3 main steps are involved in teaching this skill.

 Maintaining a crawl position. Place your baby in the ‘side sit, knee in the air’ position. From here, support her hips and rotate her around into a crawl position and back again. Once your baby feels confident in this crawl position, leave her there and gently and slowly rock her side to side and diagonally. Resist rocking her forward and backward, as this can become a bad habit.

You will find that when your baby feels confident in the crawl position, she will start to experiment herself with drawing her knees up under her and combining this with pushing up on her arms, if you give her plenty of time to play on the floor.

The child should not have a sagging tummy when she is in the crawl position. If she does, this could be because she has poor tummy muscles or because her legs are far apart. If her tummy muscles are weak, look again at GM.A.28 and GM.A.33. If her legs are far apart, use a headband, or two wristbands sewn together, to keep her legs together.

 Getting into a crawl position. This is another method your child might use to get into the crawl position. Place your child on her tummy facing away from you. Kneel down behind her, and pull on her hips, bringing them back towards you. Your child will then straighten her arms and walk them back until she is in the crawl position.

3. Rocking in a crawl position. Remember, only assist your child to rock sideways and diagonally; she will learn to rock backward and forward herself.

Positioning, Carrying and Playing

Once again, your ‘put down’ is very good for teaching your baby the crawl position. Every time you place your baby down, put her down as for GM.A.30, and then rotate her over into a crawl. Leave her there for a few seconds at first, but later, leave her for longer. Then if you wish, rotate her back into her side sitting position.