I am very aware of the issue of crawling because more and more children have not crawled and I often watch in the park, in the pool, etc. as well-meaning but wrong mothers or grandmothers, prevent babies from crawling and force them to walk early (holding them high in their hands) when their legs are not ready.
A few centuries ago babies were wrapped in gauze like a mummy because crawling was considered to be animal-like. Today science has shown that crawling is an essential phase in the development of the person and the brain but we are not yet sufficiently aware of it.
Proof of this is the sale of walkers (widely criticized by pediatricians), and hinder the crawling in many ways, especially not giving continuous and sufficient opportunities to babies (leave them on the floor) or directly preventing them.
To demonstrate the importance of this topic, here I briefly present the 8 reasons explained by the Carlos Gardeta expert.
- The crawling connects the brain hemispheres and creates crucial information routes for the maturation of different cognitive functions.
- Develop the cross pattern which is the neurological function that makes body displacement in equilibrium of the human body possible. This movement includes that of the axis of the hips and that of the shoulders. When crawling, the muscles that later will allow the child to keep the spine perfectly straight when mature are able to stand up properly.
- Develops the vestibular system and the proprioceptive system. Both systems let you know where one's body parts are.
- It allows the focus of the eyes. When looking at the floor to place the hand or knee conveniently, the child focuses both eyes on the same point at close range. This is a great muscle exercise for the eyes and its importance is such that, according to studies by optometrists, 98% of children with strabismus did not crawl small enough.
- The child feels the tactility of the palm he is seeing. This has a number of advantages of fine craftsmanship that will then influence writing. In addition, when massaging the palm of the hand, it sends information to the brain of where it is and of the different sensations and textures it feels. Also, when crawling the child supports its weight on the palms of the hands and supports that tension in the joints of the wrists, shoulders, spine, femurs and hips. Thus he perceives the opposition of gravity and learns to deal with it.
- It helps you measure the world around you and the child adapts to the environment. The distance between the eyes and the palm of the hand when crawling is a fundamental measure, THE ARM, in all civilizations. With this new body measure the child measures the surrounding world, and so when we return to a place of childhood when we grow up we perceive it as smaller than it was, because then the measure of the breaststroke was smaller.
- It helps establish the future lateralization of the brain (when one of the hemispheres becomes dominant and the other becomes a server to avoid having to operate both at the same time).
- Help to be able to write in the future. Through crawling, eye-hand brain coordination develops. When the child crawls, a distance similar to the one that will be between the eye and the hand at the time of reading and writing is established between them.
For all this, and simply because it is natural: let's give our children every chance to crawl.
