GM.A.51 CRAWLS ALONE

Crawling is extremely important to the child’s development.

It requires considerable balance to move in the crawl position and weight bearing on the hands in this position seems to be an important factor in the development or Fine Motor skills. It becomes a much quicker method or locomotion and is a stepping stone in getting the child’s world up off the floor.

How to Assess

Method: Place your child on her tummy or in the crawl position with toys 2 metres in front.

Score plus if your child crawls for 2 metres.

How to Teach

Remember, the more time you allow her to play on the floor, the more likely she is to experiment with crawling herself.

At this stage your child is happy to rock backward and forward in the crawl position so she is not unfamiliar with transferring her weight from 2 hands to 2 feet. She has also been practising transferring her weight from side to side – from 1 knee to the other and 1 hand to the other. Place her in a crawl position and kneeling behind her, rock her gently from 1 knee to the other. As you do this you may find that the non-weight-bearing knee will pull forward – this is the start of crawling.

Next practise transferring weight from 1hand to the other. This time kneel in front of her and rock her gently from 1hand to the other. Encourage her to reach out and touch or play with a toy in the crawl position. It takes considerable skill to balance on 2 knees and 1 hand, so be ready to support her.

For many months now, you have been preparing your child for crawling. If your child has mastered GM.A.40, GM.A.41 and GM.A.50, she will need only the encouragement of toys on the floor – slightly out of reach. Another wonderful motivation is the family playing crawling games, for example follow the leader.

If she has not mastered these skills, go back and practise until she has.

Positioning, Carrying and Playing

Do continue with all previous pick up, carry, put down and nursing positions.

A new put down position is to hold her under her arm and the opposite thigh, and always place her down on the floor in a crawl position. She can then sit back by herself, play in that position or lie down, but this way she is practising the important movement components many times a day.

You could also start to pick her up from crawling, supporting her only by her opposite arm and thigh.

Try encouraging different surfaces, for example the grass, with your child wearing just a nappy or nothing at all. You may find here that your child will make an extra effort to crawl, in order to avoid the feeling of the grass on her tummy!

Once she is attempting to crawl, you can extend her skills by encouraging her to crawl over and under things. Sit so that she must crawl across your legs to get to you. Accept a good effort to start with and expect her to do just a little bit better each time.

Make obstacle courses out of cushions, an ironing board or length of wood resting against the couch, beanbags, a ladder placed along the ground, a box placed on its side, a chair so you can crawl through its legs, etc. Let your imagination run riot! You can then play games of ‘follow the leader’.

When she crawls over things, your child is practising movements that she will use in future skills, such as the hall-kneeling required in GM.A.57. If you talk to her about what she is doing, she will also be learning wonderful concepts like ‘over’ and ‘under’.