Crawling

Crawling is a big step for Your Child to start practicing independence. Your Child now begins to test strength and practice body parts coordination.

Once children start crawling, they want to go everywhere. Crawling allows children to explore the surroundings on their own to satisfy their curiosity and cultivate new skills.

It is also a good exercise for children to strengthen their muscles, master coordination of different body parts, and learn about balance and speed. These skills are needed in later stages of development like climbing, walking, and running.

It is worth knowing that babies have many different crawling styles and some babies skip it to go from sitting to walking.

How to support this development
Try to provide ample opportunities for crawling. For example, you can place toys in front of Your Child to encourage the little one and move them a little bit farther each time. Or you can crawl next to Your Child and in different directions to promote a sense of direction. For extra fun, supervise the little one to crawl on a slight incline or stairs.

Note: All children develop differently and at their own pace. For children born preterm, the referred timeframe for achieving the various developmental milestones might be incorrect.

Sources: The information and graphs about when children reach specific milestones are taken from various sources, including the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC), the Denver Developmental Screening Test, and the State Institute of Early Childhood Research, Germany (IFP).