Why Crawling Is So Important For Babies
Would you like to know why crawling is so important for babies ? It is the best exercise for the child’s psychomotor development in the first stage of life.
By crawling, your child gains independence, can explore their surroundings and lose the fear of experimenting. It gets stronger and stronger and can develop different skills.
Read on to learn more about this topic.
Crawling has many benefits for babies
At around 8 months, children develop the need to move around and explore their surroundings on their own when they are put on the floor by their mother.
The toy in the immediate vicinity is no longer as interesting as other things that are a little further away and arouse the little one’s curiosity.
The child therefore tries to move independently and gradually begins to crawl to reach the desired destination.
Crawling and Psychomotor Development
Initially, the child pulls himself forward with his arms, the stomach slides on the floor and the legs are simply pulled along . Because coordination has to be learned first, and you need a lot of strength in your arms and legs to crawl.
This first exercise strengthens the muscles of the arms. Then the child can stand on four feet and strengthen the hips, back, chest and neck muscles as well as the legs.
It also gradually learns to coordinate arms and legs. The baby quickly learned to crawl and soon becomes a master.
It learns that it can move faster or slower as it wishes. Some babies also use other, quite funny shapes: for example, they continue to move like a little dog while sitting.
A baby who can crawl also learns to calculate distances: it knows that objects are nearby or further away and that it takes shorter or longer to approach them.
In addition, the child learns to keep his balance on four support points.
If the child practices a lot, they can also improve hand-eye coordination. It looks at the ground and watches where it has to put its hand on in order to move forward. If it focuses both eyes on one point, it can subconsciously prevent visual problems such as strabismus.
Spatial perception, balance and hand-eye coordination are fundamental in the first phase of life in order to develop the vestibular system and thus prevent falls and stumbling.
This is also important for babies in school, as it helps them learn to read and write faster.
Why is crawling important for babies?
Crawling is so important for babies because it not only helps babies develop psychomotor skills, but also their independence.
If the child crawls daily, they don’t need any help from mom or other adults to get around and achieve something they like. It no longer has to wait for someone to come and bring them a toy. If it is playing on the floor, it can make do by itself.
Crawling gives the child the opportunity to decide for themselves where they want to go. With this, it begins to make decisions that will later help it to learn and face life.
It’s a great success for babies. You no longer have to carry them in your arms all day, because a baby who is allowed to crawl on the floor is happy.
Stimulate your child to start crawling. Put them on a blanket in a four-legged position and give them toys so they can talk. Motivate them with words of praise and help them learn to coordinate their legs and arms.
But don’t force your child. It is important for babies to feel comfortable doing it. Every child is a world of its own. Some start crawling earlier, others a little later.
There are also babies who never crawl but start walking straight away. That doesn’t mean they will have psychomotor problems.
We recommend that you sit your child on the floor and watch their behavior. It’ll tell you if it’s ready to crawl.
