Course:KIN355/2020 Projects/Creeping/Crawling and Its Importance
Creeping and Crawling
Defining the Concept and Its Importance
Creeping and crawling are rudimentary motor skills that include stability, locomotion and manipulation of movements. The primary mode of mobility achieved by infants before they learn how to walk is known as crawling. Crawling is when the belly is in contact with the floor, the head is upright, and elbows are bent. The child progressively pulls on the floor with bent arms and legs to advance themselves across the floor. By doing this crawling maneuver the child is developing neck, back and arm strength that will allow them to progress towards creeping. Creeping is a means of mobility with the arms straight, belly off the ground and weight on the hands and knees. The child will move their arms and legs to progress across the floor. Crawling and creeping are known as gross motor skills, which is the ability to control the large muscles of the body. Gross motor skills develop over a short period of time. Crawling and creeping are important for child development as it helps to integrate primitive reflexes, build strength and develop foundational skills needed for future learning and motor coordination (McEwan, Dihoff & Brosvic, 1991). For example, fine motor coordination develops as the arches of the hand are built, communication in the brain across the midline is set up which is needed for reading skills to occur and muscle tone, strength and coordination are increased throughout the body (Berger, Friedman & Polis, 2011).
Creeping and crawling are known to improve physical development, neurological development, vision, coordination and balance, and self confidence in the child. During neurological development encouragement of midline crossing, that is the line that runs down the centre of our brain and divides the left side from the right side of the body (Cardoso, 2009). Crossing of the midline is important for development of the two hemispheres of the brain and future development. Creeping and crawling involves the use of bilateral coordination which indicates that the left side of the brain is working with the right side and vice versa, both sides of the body are working in harmony (Cardoso, 2009). Creeping and crawling can encourage the healthy development of near and far vision. Children are able to learn to train their eyes. They are able to look into the distance of an object that they want it, look towards a destination and look back down to their hands. This establishes the connection of the baby to their surroundings of what they see. Once the baby reaches school, visual development will enable them to track objects and improve reading performance. Creeping and crawling is the beginning of the development of hand eye coordination. Children reach for objects and move around; hand eye coordination will allow the child to ride a bike later on. Creeping and crawling are known to enhance a baby’s internal balance and equilibrium; the body must counteract gravity when crawling which stimulates the vestibular and proprioceptive systems (Nandi & Luxon, 2008). The vestibular system is the sensory system that runs through your inner ear dealing with balance and spatial orientation, leading the body to coordination movement with balance.
Role in Childhood Development and Contemporary Considerations
Creeping and crawling are important developmental milestones for a child at any age. They are vital to improve neurological abilities such as focus and concentration, visual tracking and convergence, and the ability to understand abstract concepts of time, distance and space. Babies begin to crawl using primary reflexes, they then learn how to crawl on their stomach and later gain the ability to creep on their hands and knees. During this process they develop physically and mentally, without mastering these two developmental milestones children will not progress developmentally. Crawling on the belly develops the pons, the pons is the part of the brainstem that links the medulla oblongata to the thalamus. The pons is a very important part of the brain for the regulation and control of a number of vital functions, such as respiration, equilibrium, eye movement and posture. These functions are all vital for a developing child. The medulla oblongata is responsible for regulating several basic functions of the autonomic nervous system, including respiration, cardiac function and other reflexes. The thalamus is composed of different nuclei that serve special roles, such as relaying sensory and motor signals which is essential to a child during motor development. Creeping on the hands and knees supports the development of the midbrain. The midbrain is a portion of the central nervous system that has associated duties such as vision and motor control. These duties are essential in child development.
If a child is unable to learn how to creep and crawl at an early stage it will have serious consequences on their cognitive and motor development as they age later in life. Creeping and crawling is known to improve neurological development, which allows the midline to cross. The crossing of the midline allows the left hemisphere of the brain to interact with the right hemisphere which enables the body to move and work in harmony (Cardoso, 2009). Without attaining the skill of creeping and crawling the midline will not cross over in the child’s brain, thus resulting in the two sides of the body not working together. This means a connection between the two halves of the brain will be unable to form. Bilateral coordination is used during gross motor movements, without the experience of gross motor movements the brain will not develop, and connections will not be formed. Creeping and crawling is shown to improve vision in children allowing them to track and develop better near and far vision, without creeping and crawling the connection of the baby and their surroundings in the environment will not be made. Spatial skills are the ability to locate objects in three dimensions using sight or touch. Research shows that crawling facilitates the development of cognitive skills, including the skills that allow a child to locate an object by sight or touch (Berger, Friedman & Polis, 2011). If the child is not afforded the opportunity to develop total neurological organization, the child cannot become totally "normal", and as a result cannot communicate at the level at which the child might have been able to, had neurological organization been completed. The enhancement of the child’s internal balance and equilibrium system is done through creeping and crawling. The body counteracts gravity when crawling which stimulates the proprioceptive and vestibular systems. The vestibular system is the sensory system that is located inside the inner ear and deals with balance and spatial orientation, allowing you to know where your body is in location to space (Nandi & Luxon, 2008). Without crawling or creeping these two systems would not be able to fully develop, which will later lead the child to endure balance problems in their near future.
Primitive reflexes are reflex actions originating in the central nervous system that are exhibited by normal infants in response to stimuli. As the child transitions normally into child development, these reflexes are suppressed by the development of the frontal lobes. Primitive reflexes should disappear between six and twelve months as the brain starts to inhibit them as more sophisticated, neural functioning begins to develop. If these reflexes persist, they will interfere with the mastering of intentional control of muscles and hinder the development of physical readiness and academic learning during school. Bad behaviour, poor social skills, lack of impulse control and difficulty in learning in some cases can be symptoms of an underdeveloped central nervous system (Olson et al., 2018). In conclusion, creeping and crawling are proved to help children develop cognitively and physically.
Practical Applications
Given the cognitive and physical developmental advantages of creeping and crawling, it would be advantageous for infants if their parents/caregivers implement activities that encourage the learning and application of such movements. Below are two activities, one for crawling and the other for creeping, an infant can perform in order to learn and master these movements.
The first activity is called ‘crawl cart’, which will help the infant with their crawling movement. The purpose of this activity is to increase the strength of the infant’s arms and legs to allow them to pull themselves forward during the crawling movement. This activity will also help the infant recognize that crawling is a possible movement they can perform to move about their environment. Since crawling usually starts around the age 6-9 months, this is the target group for this activity and is the best time period for parents/caregivers to implement this activity. Crawl cart only requires a flat board with four wheels that is not high off the ground, like a skateboard, and it should be around the length of the infant’s torso. This activity is best performed in a wide empty space, for example, a cleared out living room. To perform the activity, place the infant prone on the board with their arms and legs dangling off. Their hands and feet should be comfortably touching the ground. Encourage the infant to use their hands and feet to propel themselves forward, this can be done by either standing at a distance and calling over the infant or by placing a desired item/toy at a distance from the infant. Placing a desired item at a distance will help in the development of the infant’s near and far vision, which in turn will help in the development of their midbrain and pons, since, as mentioned above, they have roles in vision and eye movement. Parents/caregivers are encouraged to watch the infants perform this activity and notice if the infant has dominance in using force from their arms or legs, in which case, they can perform some modifications to the activity. If the infant relies more on their leg strength, they should be placed on a longer board so that only their hands are touching the ground. With this slight modification, the infant will have to use their arm strength to propel forward. However, if the infant was more reliant on their arm strength, only their legs can be touching the ground, so they are forced to use them for movement. The modification will allow the activity to improve the infant’s weaker muscles, which can be considered as a limiting factor for the infant to perform crawling. Once the limiting factor is surpassed, the infant can greatly improve at crawling.
The second activity, ‘towel hug’, focuses on the action of creeping. Similar to crawling, the infant needs to build their muscular strength to be able to perform creeping and this activity will be focusing on building that. The purpose of this activity is to increase the strength of many muscles, mainly the shoulder, arms, and legs. It is also to familiarize the infant with the action of creeping. The target age for this activity is 8-10 months, as this is the age around which most infants start to creep. ‘Towel Hug’ only requires a towel or a large cloth to be performed and it is best performed in an empty room with a soft carpet or pillows underneath the infant for knee protection. While the infant is lying prone on the floor, the parent/caregiver places the towel underneath them, around the torso area, and pulls up to carry the infant, putting them in a creeping position. The infant’s hands and knees should still be touching the floor and they should be supporting some of their own body weight, instead of the parent/caregiver completely carrying them. A desired toy/item is placed at a distance from the infant and they are encouraged to move their limbs to propel themselves towards the object; once again, having the object can help improve the infant’s near and far vision. Many infants like being carried and so the activity will be quite fun for them. Furthermore, when the parent/caregiver alters the strength with which the infant is being pulled up, the amount of strength the infant uses to support themselves can be altered. It would be beneficial is the parent/caregiver keeps changing the strength with which they hold the baby, even changing it throughout the same playing session. The infant’s reflexes for body weight support as well as muscle strength will be challenged and, therefore, improved. Such challenges will encourage the development of the infant’s frontal lobe, which will suppress primitive reflexes as desired. A possible modification to this activity is to have older sibling(s), if present, carry the infant with the towel instead of the parent/caregiver. This can also be used to enhance the connection between the infant and their older sibling(s).
Summary
Creeping and crawling are basic foundational movements a child learns before walking. Crawling is learned before creeping. Both are forward linear movements. The difference between the two is the belly, elbows, and legs touch the ground for crawling. And the arms and knees are used in creeping instead. Aside from physical development, they also improve the brain, vision, hand eye coordination, and balance. The child’s internal balance and equilibrium are enhanced by the proprioceptive and vestibular system stimulation through these movements. The use of a crawl cart and towel hug are two activities that will aid in the development of creeping and crawling.
References
Berger, S. E., Friedman, R., & Polis, M. C. (2011). The role of locomotor posture and experience on handedness and footedness in infancy. Infant Behavior & Development, 34(3), 472–480. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2011.05.003
Cardoso, A. A., & Magalhães, L. de C. (2009). Bilateral coordination and motor sequencing in Brazilian children: preliminary construct validity and reliability analysis. Occupational Therapy International, 16(2), 107–121. doi: 10.1002/oti.273
McEwan, M. H., Dihoff, R. E., & Brosvic, G. M. (1991). Early infant crawling experience is reflected in later motor skill development. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 72(1), 75–79. doi: 10.2466/pms.1991.72.1.75
Nandi, R., & Luxon, L. M. (2008). Development and assessment of the vestibular system. International Journal of Audiology, 47(9), 566–577. doi: 10.1080/14992020802324540
Olson, S. L., Davis-Kean, P., Chen, M., Lansford, J. E., Bates, J. E., Pettit, G. S., & Dodge, K. A. (2018). Mapping the Growth of Heterogeneous Forms of Externalizing Problem Behavior Between Early Childhood and Adolescence: A Comparison of Parent and Teacher Ratings. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 46(5), 935–950. doi: 10.1007/s10802-018-0407-9