Baby motor milestones often include scooting and crawling; to foster these milestones effectively requires strength, motivation, and opportunities for practice.
Beginning from birth, promote tummy time as much as possible to develop key neck, arm and shoulder muscles. Aim to keep a baby in this position for at least 30 minutes daily – time may vary according to age!
1. Get Down on the Floor
One of the best ways you can support your baby in their crawling journey is through providing ample floor time. They should play on their stomach for three to five minutes two or three times each day with a comfortable blanket or play mat and use this time to develop neck, abdominal, and hip muscles necessary for crawling.
Begin babyproofing your home now. Get down on all fours and inspect each room through your baby’s eyes to identify potential hazards that require removal or adjustment.
Place motivating toys just out of reach on the floor and encourage your baby to try to reach them by crawling. Adding noisy or rolling toys can make these activities especially engaging for babies while encouraging weight shifting and pivoting. You could even set up an obstacle course with obstacles they need to go over, under or around; more practice means easier crawling!
2. Make Crawling a Part of Playtime
Crawling can be an enjoyable, rewarding part of playtime for children. Instead of simply playing with toys on the floor, try getting down on baby’s level and encouraging him or her to crawl toward you; this will boost their confidence as they develop their crawling progress and make crawling a more desirable activity for both of you.
If your baby hasn’t crawled yet, try encouraging them to pivot while on their tummies – this helps strengthen core muscles and form pathways between both sides of their brain. Place motivating objects slightly off to one side such as their favorite toy so they’re inspired to shift their weight and reach for it.
Once your baby begins crawling, ensure they have plenty of room to explore while remaining under supervision. Minimize time spent in bouncy seats, jumpers or activity centers that could hinder muscle development.
3. Place Toys Just Out of Baby’s Reach
Before crawling can begin, babies must learn to pivot their upper bodies. This milestone typically emerges around 6 months (some before crawling and others after). To support their ability, place motivating toys or objects just out of reach during playtime while lying on their tummies – this will encourage them to shift their weight forward and move their arms in order to access these objects.
Playing peekaboo with your child as they reach for the mirror can also be an excellent way to foster movement and facilitate exploration during tummy time. Try playing peekaboo as they reach towards it!
At first, it is essential to eliminate anything that could impede movement – furniture they could run into or topple over, bouncers and activity centers may all delay motor development and cause injury; as an alternative try playing crawl tag games or using play tunnels as these will provide fun challenges and encourage movement.
4. Create an Obstacle Course
If your baby hasn’t made the transition from sitting to hands-and-knees crawling yet or is only doing army crawls, creating an obstacle course can be an engaging way for them to practice walking on all fours or improving balance and gross motor skills.
Start by placing some soft surfaces like pillows or carpet on the floor, and creating an obstacle course your baby must navigate to reach the other side. Make your obstacle course as complex or simple as desired: from simple lines of spots on the ground to stacks of pillow hills – and don’t forget that pop-up tunnel tubes and cardboard can serve as fun incentives!
Obstacle courses provide your baby with a valuable way to develop spatial awareness. By moving around obstacles and discovering different surfaces, heights and depths they will start learning how to coordinate arms and legs as they explore various surfaces, heights and depths; which will prepare them for more complex movements later such as walking.
5. Crawl Through an Obstacle Course
An obstacle course is one of the best ways to encourage baby crawling. By strengthening hands, arms and shoulders while stimulating core muscles vital to this gross motor skill.
Simply placing toys slightly out of reach on either side of your baby while sitting can encourage them to move their legs toward an object. It may also help those babies who have learned how to scoot backward, yet cannot get themselves moving forward; when this occurs it may help putting your hand behind their foot (for leverage) so they can push off and start crawling!
Set up a balance beam. This can be as easy as placing a 2×4 on the floor or rolling up an area rug; or create an obstacle course by placing chairs or end tables against each other and covering them with blankets to form tunnels for your baby to crawl through.
