GM.C.73 CLIMBS STAIRS ON HANDS AND KNEES

This is a skill that many parents discourage by placing fences at the tops and bottoms of stairs. However, it is the first of the climbing skills and as such is a necessary prerequisite to climbing stairs on 2 feet. It is worth spending the time to teach your child this skill, though of course you will leave the fences up when you can’t be nearby.

How to Assess:

Materials: A flight of 4 to 6 stairs and some toys.

Method: Put the toys at the top of the stairs and encourage your child to climb to them. Score plus if your child crawls up the stairs on her hands and knees.

How to Teach

Start with just one step. If your child is crawling as a means of quick locomotion, she will probably not hesitate at one step, but lift one knee up onto the step and carry on crawling.

If not, put her toys up on the step and help her to bend one knee up, hold his knee and wait for her to lift the other up.

Next, try 2 steps – at the front to back door or construct 2 steps with large books or boxes. More than one step will require her to balance on the width of the step. If she goes to sit back on one hip, she will fall off and it is safer for her to learn this fact on 2 steps rather than 6 – not so far to fall!

Gradually increase the number of stairs to crawl up but always be close by if there is any danger of her hurting herself if she falls. A crawling child is always likely to forget and twist around to sit and miss the step.