Learning to Crawl
Written By Janis Graham
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A late crawler does not mean a late bloomer.
For most babies, crawling is the natural thing to do before walking. It bolsters the strength and coordination needed for taking those first steps and satisfies a growing desire to explore new places — especially those previously unreachable, like steep staircases (got a gate?) and cabinets filled with cleaning supplies (got safety locks?).
In fact, according to a 2006 World Health Organization study, 95 percent of the world's children crawl before they walk (countries surveyed were Ghana, India, Norway, Oman, and the United States).
In the U.S., though, the crawling timeline is changing. As of 1994 the Back to Sleep campaign began urging parents to place drowsy infants on their backs to fall asleep, as a means of preventing SIDS. At the time, 70 percent of babies were tummy sleepers. By 2001 this figure had dropped to 20 percent, and as a result, the rate of SIDS has declined significantly.
But something else has happened too: American babies now crawl later than they used to, typically at around 7 to 9 months instead of at 6 to 8 months. Spending less time on one's stomach seems to delay a baby's ability to crawl because there's less opportunity to practice.
Interestingly, though, delayed crawling has not resulted in delayed walking, with both early and late crawlers taking their first steps close to their first birthdays. The same goes for the 5 percent of babies who never crawl and who just proceed straight to walking. When it comes to gross-motor skills, to each, it seems, her own.
