After re-reading some posts from this thread, it seems like there may be some confusion.
If I remember correctly, what Doman said was that crawling has an impact on SPEECH. He didn’t say reading/writing etc, though that doesn’t necessarily mean that reading/writing isn’t helped too.
Trinity, I was very worried about all gross motor skills in my daughter - she also hated belly time. My doctor and chiropractor contributed to my fears but didn’t give me any worthwhile suggestions either. Had I known about Doman early on, I would have made an effort to follow at least some of the suggestions in Physically Superb. Current living conditions would have made the full program impossible. Marina was advanced in other areas though, finally crawled at 15 months and walked at 18. Now at 21 months she’s mastering climbing and I’m happy to say, knows the alphabet, can repeat most words and signs over 50 regularly.
Marina was a large baby and grew very rapidly in the first six months - I think this contributed to her slow large motor development. From my experience, I wouldn’t be too worried at this stage unless your baby is missing other milestones. Every baby grows and develops at their own pace, just like the rest of us.
According to Doman, crawling was and is suppose to help develop the breathing and hence the lung of the baby … with developed lungs … deeper breath etc … the baby is supposed to be able to develop speech faster … ie speaking faster than other babies …
as for other official reports i read cross crawling like a cat or dog, is spposed to help the child coordinate walking etc …, espcially on physical activities … also it mentioned that those who skip crawling often confuse right from left …
Perhaps that is for some individuals …
what i do is put my child on the foam mat, and me laying down with her, sometimes acting like the big elephant or horse, i nudge her with my head pushing her to move … she likes it alot and tries to move or follow my action or sometimes to chase me … she started crawling around 5mth … on the baby walker by 6mth still with crawling of course, and she started walking on her own at 11th … of course we still have play time where we act out crawling … espcially when i set up obstacles crawling under them etc … she is strong as an ox or elephant for that matter …and at 13-14 mths likes to run too … and she has a very very loud forceful voice … no need loudspeakers … nothing to do with right brain or reading or what have you …
ps nothing to do with trinity above
My toddler was speaking in sentences before he could crawl or walk totally on his own. We of course used flashcards since he was able to recognize things. My infant is 9 months and he just now began crawling but guess what he can walk with assistance, and he began to talk at 7 months old. He now says baba, dada, mama, bye. I was worried about my two with not crawling but I think everyone grows and develops their own time. My infant seems to have more motor skills then my toddler did at the infants age. I can see a big difference between their skills.
From what I understand the critical part is crossing over the midpoint of your body. This helps to connect the two parts of your brain and is important. There are exercises that you can do for older children too for children having problems reading. These exercises calm and make you focus better and help improve your reading skills. Crawling as a baby is part of this and it helps to develop the brain for speech and reading.
The site I gave for older children exercises is www.schoolmoves.com. They have two level of exercises basically involve crossing over midpoint of body and eye exercises.
I have actually started playing tummy time with my kid but did not know that it actually helps the kid for crawling.
Babies begin life with a ‘homolateral’ pattern whereby the right side of the brain governs the right side of the body and the left hemisphere the left side. The act of crawling establishes the patterning that allows the energies to cross over.
Here is a video on crossover and the importance of it even for adults, but this is what is happening for the baby with crawling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iveP_cEKmWA
walking, swimming, running are natural forms of cross crawl
mother of faith …
I would just like to ask … when you say your baby talked in sentences … is it in english, or any other understandable language … or is it blabble …
Alot of confusion has been happening because alot of people wants to claim their baby can talk … and talking means having a conversation … a blabble on the other hand is a one way communication, of which only one understood what is said.
EG my wife and i heard the baby said mummy, but she was 5 mths old … and she was looking at mama when she called mummy … we tot we heard wrong, even though both of us heard it … but she did not repeat it again, in any case we teach her to call mama …, she only called mama again when she was 7 mth … as with papa etc while looking at us … but she started blabbling at 5mth … it goes on and on and on … actually first sign of blabbling was 4 mths … but we tot it was just the usual sound a baby make … but you can hear the vocab of blabbling increasing towards 11mth … instead of repetitive sound
Qn becomes … is babbling talking … i personally wouldn’t put it as that … as i do not want to go around boasting … and people actually have no idea what the baby is talking … we put it as baby talk …
Anyway according to GD, baby talks when they are ready and mostly by 1.5yrs old … in words we can understand … be it english or japanese or chinese or mexican etc … the fastest is 12 mth but in very very simple word and those that are repetitive …
maybe we need a new topic and figure out exactly when baby speaks and what is considered as speaking … or talking in 1 syllabus word or structered sentences …
oh yeah there is a report saying baby do call baba dada mama etc at about 6 mth … but that is for almost every baby in the word regardless of language … is that speaking or talking … anyway who knows … someone might be saying their baby is speaking in tangs when they are 1 mth old next time …
I am an Orientation and Mobility specialist who work with blind and visually impaired kids. From my prospective (a lot of research has been done in that subject) kids who do not crawl have problems with gross motor functions, directionality and laterality. I see that every day, because most of the VI kids do not crawl - reason: no visual stimuli.
Unfortunalety, my own son doesn’t want to crawl! We are doing everything we can to encourage him but nothing works! He is almost 9 months old and he will be walking soon. I am very disappointed but I am not giving up and even if he doesn’t crawl before walking I am sure he will crawl later, as many kids do.
just my experience…my baby didn’t crawl just started walking directly. And I didn’t see any delay or lack of any developmental motor skills
I just have a question and i could be off the wall here but someone stated to me that because my children didn’t crawl first was because i had a c-section with both of them? Now if this is true or not i don’t know but it is something to think about and if there is any doc or p.t or o.t out there who could research this, i think it would be a great topic to research.
I do know that both of my kids had a problem with their neck, they had a lot of tummy time but because the way they were positioned in my womb and that they were both 1 week late due to my midwife not believing me about being in labor, that the way they were positioned was causing their head to be shaped flat on one side, and the neck muscles was to tight on one side. So we had to place them on a huge exercise ball and roll them to increase the muscles in their neck, and of course that was a problem associated with crawling. We had to do p.t everyday until the head got round and the neck muscles loosened up. They both are doing great now, and they can grasp tiny objects, and use their hands in placing shapes in a box, etc.