GM.C.80 CRAWLS BACKWARDS DOWN STAIRS

This may seem a strange task to have to teach your child, but it is really a self-preservation skill and until she learns it, she will have many headfirst falls off beds, furniture, stairs, etc.

How to Assess

Materials: A flight of 2 or 3 steps

Method: Place the child sitting at the top of a flight of stairs and encourage her to crawl down. Score plus if your child crawls down, rotating from sitting to her tummy and lowering her legs down first.

How to Teach

Teaching this skill is just a matter of guiding her to come down backwards each time she tries to get off the bed or lounge or to crawl down stairs. Unfortunately, you’re not going to be there every time this happens so a few short practice repetitions will help to reinforce the skill.

Sit her on the lounge and ask her to get down to the floor. From the sitting position, place both her hands on the seat away from you and lean her forward onto her hands, twisting her trunk. As you do this, her legs will slip out from under her and drop down against the lounge to the floor. Initially the whole movement will happen so quickly that she will get a surprise when her feet touch the ground; reassure her by saying ‘Good girl, you’re standing up’.

As you are doing the movement you may find it helpful to say ‘legs down’ or ‘legs first’, after you have told her to ‘Get down’.

Practise initially on high surfaces like the bed or lounge because with smaller heights she will be tempted to go headfirst. If you continually say ‘legs first’ then this will in time be all you need to say when you see her at the edge of the bed or chair or at the top of the stairs.

When she is to go backwards down stairs, again, sit her on the top stair and help her rotate around onto her knees. You guide her legs as necessary, but she should be able to bring her hands down herself. It is usually sufficient to guide one leg down for her and wait for her to bring the other leg and hand.

At the same time as you are teaching this skill, encourage your child to use her crawling skills in new ways. Set up an obstacle course, so that she can crawl over, under and through a variety of barriers. Let her crawl up and down slopes and in the sand. Crawling is now easy, fun and a wonderful way to explore the world.