Importance of Crawling: 5 reasons why crawling before walking is critical

/

Walking tends to be the most celebrated milestone for little ones.
We’re sure you can remember those first steps like it was just yesterday!

What about crawling?
Did your child crawl? If they did, did they cross-crawl?
Or did they scoot, army crawl, or roll to wherever they wanted to be?

Cross-crawling tends to be overlooked on the list of milestones for a child’s development.
But we encourage you to not skim over or rush your child’s success. Cross-crawling is one of the most important milestones to pave the way for future growth and development,
and below you can find out why!

Our friends over at Pathways to Family Wellness have outlined
5 reasons why crawling before walking shouldn’t be overlooked:

picsea-424444-unsplash.jpg

  1. Crawling sets the stage for the supporting structures of the spine as baby prepares for standing upright on 2 feet.

  2. Cross-crawling strengthens the communication between both hemispheres of the brain (right hemisphere and left hemisphere).

  3. Through continued use of the brain structure called the cerebellum during movement, balance and coordination is fine tuned for all milestones to come.

  4. Palms of hands and feet are utilized upon crawling which strengthens sensitivity and allows for baby to explore many different textures while improving body awareness.

  5. Crawling also allows for baby to view the world in a different space through enhancement of their visual system. They can now learn to differentiate distances between different items in space (i.e. Where is mom in relationship to me? Near? Far?)

For more information and greater detailed explanations on these top 5 reasons, please visit: http://blog.pathwaystofamilywellness.org/pathways/crawling-a-necessary-step-before-walking/#sthash.3W8RLghU.dpbs