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Crawling, What's The Big Deal?

Writer's picture: Erin WardErin Ward

I'm sure you've seen all the articles, posts, memes and endless blog posts about the skill. But why is it such a big deal both for babies and the therapists that support it?



Over the past few years, the benefits of crawling have been debated. Most recently, this means of mobility has become a hot topic in the news when in 2021, the CDC removed crawling from the developmental milestone checklist due to what they report as a lack of evidence to support its benefits in overall development. As you can guess, this sent all pediatric therapists into a tail spin.


While all early gross motor skills are important, I would argue that crawling is the pinnacle of what your baby has worked so hard to achieve in their first year of life.


Removing this skill from a checklist that helps to ensure your baby is developmentally on track, may result in babies not receiving the therapy support they require until future complications have occurred. By providing early education to families, lactation consultants, doctors, and other therapists, I hope to avoid this and encourage crawling skills in our youngest generation.


Before we go further into the benefits, let's first take a quick minute to break down different types of crawling and why they may be happening to your child. If you look on the internet there are endless ways a baby moves on the ground. Butt scooting, back scooting, army crawling, hands and knees and so much more. I mean, once they're moving, it's all the same right? Unfortunately, no. Not all forms of floor mobility are equal. Often, alternative ways of "crawling", indicate a combination of weakness and tightness in your baby's trunk, hips, and/or shoulders. Read below to understand how these variations may be telling you that your baby is actually struggling to move effectively.


Crawling Variations (The Good and The Bad):


Hands and Knees Crawling: the baby has equal weight through both hands and knees with their belly off of the ground. They progress forward by moving the opposite hand and knee simultaneously. When therapists speak about crawling, this is what they are aiming for.


Army Crawling: the baby remains on their belly often pulling themselves forward with their arms or pushing with their feet. This is a common predecessor to crawling on hands and knees, but if it persists after a few weeks, army crawling often indicates signs of weakness through the hips, core and/or shoulders.


Janky Crawling: the baby keeps one knee on the ground and the opposite hip flexed up and the foot on the ground. Weight is not evely distributed through both sides of the body and often results in one side being weaker. This can occur when babies have unresolved torticollis or imbalances in overall strength and flexibility.


Butt Scooting: the baby remains in a seated position and scoots itself across the floor with the use of its legs and hands. Babies who prefer to butt scoot often have more symmetrical weakness through their hips, core and shoulders, as well as some possible tightness through their hips.


The Benefits of Crawling on Hands and Knees:


Now that you have a basic understanding of the differences between the aforementioned crawling forms, lets break down why a true symmetrical crawl on hands and knees is essential for your babies future gross motor skills. Crawling is a whole body work out that incorporates every portion of your child's body all the way from their eyes, to their hands, to their core to their toes. Below you will find a list of just some of the ways your baby's body benefits frrom the act of crawling.



  1. Hand Strength: When you baby pushing up onto fully extended elbows with weight through their hands, this helps to develop the arches in the palms and strengths the muscles that allow for proper grip strength as your child matures. This promotes appropriate skills later in life to allow your child to develop appropriate writing skills.


  2. Rib Cage Flexibility/Strength: When you baby advances their body forward in a crawling fashion, it results in a side to side motion through their trunk that strengthens and stretches the muscles around the rib cage. Later in life, these same muscles are pivotal for eating, breathing and talking.


  3. Vision: Crawling is the first time your child has the ability to move in a forward fashion. They now can find objects and effectively move toward them. Tracking objects while moving helps to prep your child’s vision for future visual skills, such as reading.


  4. Leg Strength: Similarly to the hands, placing weight through the knees results in the muscles around the knee, thigh and hip to strength significantly. Additionally, keeping the trunk flat while moving forward, is a challenging core strengthening skill. The strength that is developed through these areas by crawling helps preps the body for more advanced balance skills and improved posture.


  5. Bilateral Coordination: While a child crawls, they must advance the opposite arm and leg together. This forces opposite sides of the brain to work together which is essential for proper bilateral coordination skills. Such activities as stairs, walking, running, skipping, galloping, and ball skills all rely on appropriate foundational bilateral coordination.


All and all, crawling on hands and knees packs so much into one skill. It creates a solid foundation for your child to build upon as they continue to develop and work on more complex gross motor skills.


So, what do you do now? What if your baby never crawled? First off, know that it is never too late to practice. The benefits of incorporating crawling into your child's routine are not age specific. Create an obstacle course, get them on the ground and crawl around. If your child truly has difficulty crawling, reach out to a therapist for an evaluation to determine the root cause of their problems.



I hope you found this information helpful to learn more about why crawling on hands and knees is important for your baby!  For more information on early gross motor development, feel free to reach out to Small Strides Physical Therapy, a pediatric Physical Therapy company specializing in early development, torticollis/side preferences and plagiocephaly/flat head.  Small Strides offers in person mobile treatment for Newburyport, MA and surrounding towns.


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CONTACT

Email: eward@smallstridespt.com

Tel: 978-255-3606

Fax: 833-337-4514

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Hamilton, MA 01982

P.O. Box 1035

Newburyport, MA 01950

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Plum + Port Photography

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Erin Ward PT, DPT

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