I field many questions about milestones in my profession, but the one I get most often is about crawling. I love the crawling milestone (if someone can actually love a milestone that is!) It is the single most beneficial skill, in my opinion. Let's break it down a bit. When a baby crawls on all fours, she is weight bearing on her arms and legs, strengthening the hip and shoulder joints. She is shifting her weight between four limbs to move forward, sideways, and sometimes backwards. This requires a great deal of motor planning. Her hands are gripping the floor reinforcing the arches of the hands which will later be essential in handwriting and fine motor skills. Turning her head from side to side in the all fours position is developing the vestibular/balance sense and also the various aspects of vision. The most important piece of crawling is the actual development of the brain by the movement of the body. The corpus callosum is a thick band of nerve fibers that divides the cerebrum into left and right hemispheres. It connects the left and right sides of the brain allowing for communication between both sides transferring motor, sensory, and cognitive information between the brain hemispheres. The reciprocal movement of crawling reinforces the development of this vital part of the brain due to the use of the left and right sides of the brain cooperatively to move the left and right side of the body in a coordinated fashion.
In my practice, I have noticed a correlation between babies who never crawled and those who have difficulty with reading and handwriting once school age. This stands to reason because the corpus callosum is required in reading and writing to follow a sentence across the page from left to right utilizing both sides of the brain. These children also tend to have balance and coordination issues as well.
Why is tummy time important here? Without tummy time, a child may not develop the extensor strength or the reflexes to assume the all fours crawling position. The Symmetrical Tonic Neck reflex is what gets a child up into the crawling position and is developed from the prone or stomach lying position. Again, it is difficult to develop a balanced, coordinated body while neglecting an entire muscle group, the extensors of the neck and back.
Last thing to remember: It is NEVER too late to crawl! :)
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