I really don’t know the answer to this question. Some children bypass crawling and just start walking - and lots of pediatricians think this is okay.
However, right-brain educator Glenn Doman believes crawling is essential not just to a child’s physical development but to her mental development as well.
It’s a question I’ve discussed this on the BrillBaby website here:
http://www.brillbaby.com/teaching/physical/crawling.php
Personally, I would like my baby to learn to crawl - I don’t want to bypass any stages! I’m not sure how I will feel if she doesn’t crawl at all, but she is still 9.5 months old and two of my friends have babies who started crawling at 10 months.
It’s not what I was expecting though, as I started crawling at 7-8 months (and am not a particularly sporty person!). Naimah is very active - always striving to move somewhere, to get at something or to grab at something. When you change her, she’s always kicking and writhing and rolling onto her tummy. Once on her tummy, she’s only happy if she can pull books or magazines out of a stack (her toys are not half as interesting!). Then, when we don’t let her eat or shred paper, she’ll start fussing for someone to rescue her from the prone position. :wub:
Anyway, she can now crawl (sort of) using the Glenn Doman crawling track - it’s just that she hates it. Check out this video I shot yesterday, on my blog. (Lappy says it reminds her of the video I posted earlier of the boy attending the Shichida school. lol)
As for encouraging physical development, we have always given Nim daily tummy time, but not four hours per day as recommended by Glenn Doman, because we can’t stand to see her so upset (when she was small, she would be much more upset than you see in the video).
Is crawling important to you? Or do you have a child who never crawled?
At what age did your baby start crawling (if ever)? Do you think it’s more a case of nature than nurture, or vice versa, as to when babies start crawling?
Do you think crawling - and the age at which it starts - has an impact on someone’s future development? Or could it be a predictor?
(Wouldn’t it be interesting to know when professional athletes learned to crawl and walk??)
Although I started crawling at an average age, I didn’t walk until 16 months (I cruised from 12 months - so it was all a question of fear factor :blink:). My brother started crawling not much younger than me, but started walking at 10 months!
I see it in our personalities to this day. If we go skiing, I won’t do any jumps, but my brother will. He’ll ski faster and take more risks. But then my brother has also had broken bones and stitches in his life…