How to Help Baby Crawl: 7 Tips to Help Teach Your Baby To Crawl!

as an occupational therapist parents often ask me what activities they can do with their baby to help them learn to crawl after watching this video you are going to know what age you can start to expect your baby to start crawling and most importantly seven tips that are going to help you teach your baby to crawl but before we get into it make sure you click on that free pdf document in the description box below which covers the developmental milestones you can be expecting for your little one in their first year of life this will give you invaluable peace of mind as you'll know what to be expecting and when to be concerned also if you want to make parenting significantly easier make sure you start now by subscribing to my channel and hitting that bell where you'll learn the tips and tricks i've learnt over the last 10 years practicing as a pediatric occupational therapist and being a mum to two children so when can you expect your baby to start crawling babies typically learn to crawl anywhere from six to nine months of age for your baby to crawl they need two things they need to have the muscular strength to support themselves on their arms and knees and they also need to be able to coordinate their limbs to make that movement happen so as a parent how you can help your baby achieve crawling is firstly by giving them lots and lots of tummy time now i know you probably think my baby's now sitting they don't need to practice tummy time they do it is through tummy time that your baby starts to push up on the extended arm so they start to lift their body off the ground that helps strengthen those arm muscles and that shoulder so that they can achieve that position when they're crawling so be able to extend their arms and support their body into that four point position for crawling now what you want to do when they're on their tummy at this stage is because they will be starting to extend their arms to lift their body off the ground you can encourage them to pivot and that continues to strengthen those arm muscles so how you do that is place toys without out of reach of them so basically you place it up higher to the side what you'll see is your baby will start to use their arms to move their body and turn and face that toy to then grab it and engage it in play so in addition to encouraging your baby to reach when they're on tummy time what you also want to do is encourage them to reach when they're sitting so when they're up sitting what you can do to encourage them to reach which essentially means that they have to reach out and grab a toy and move out of their base of support which is where they're really comfortable we do that by placing a toy out of reach now initially that toy might be just let slightly out of reach and that ensures that they will grab it if it's too far they're just not even going to try so you place it slightly out of their reach they'll reach out and grab it and then bring themselves back into their center of support what we're trying to do there is when we start to place the toys out of reach your baby will start to reach out with one arm and that arm might go down and then they'll support their upper body using that arm or they might start to place two hands on the ground to get be able to reach further and that again provides that opportunity to strengthen those upper body muscles required for crawling the third thing you want to do is help your baby get into and out of sitting from the floor now this is really important because once the babies are sitting we tend to stop doing tummy time and we just put them on the ground in sitting now to help develop the strength of those muscles up above and to try and encourage them to be used to that position of being on their hands and knees we want them to transition from sitting onto the floor now you can do that a few ways initially in the beginning how you will do that is by rolling your the baby when they're lying on the floor on their back slightly onto their side and then get them to place their hands out in front and as you apply pressure to the hip you will bring them slightly up into sitting and one of their hands will drag along the ground now you're teaching them that ability to get from lying into sitting as they get stronger they'll start to do that themselves if your baby is able to do um hold the four-point position where they're on their hands and their knees you can help them transition from that position into sitting by just gently grabbing their hips and pulling them back into sitting so the fourth activity you can do with your baby is help them get used to being in that four point position and stronger in that position on their hands and knees so initially your baby might be able to achieve that position without your support and how you could provide that is you could hold them at their tummy when they're in that position on their hands and knees the other option if that's too difficult for your baby because they kind of slide out of it because they're just not strong enough what you can do is rest their tummy over your leg so that their hands are on one side of your thigh and then their legs are on the other side and essentially your thigh is taking the majority of the baby's weight and if they need additional support you can place your hands at their hips or at their knees to help them maintain that position just for a period of time what you can do to make it a bit more interesting for your baby is place a mirror or a toy in front of them so that they will stay in that position because it will be difficult for them initially and the third way you can do this is when your baby is in tummy time and they're starting to push up on their arms what you can do is you could help them get onto their knees by just grabbing them at their hips and their knees and slightly flipping their legs underneath their body so that you bring them onto their knees you can hold them in that position or if your baby's strong enough you can take your hands away and they'll be able to stay in that position for a little while and then they'll just slide on out onto their tummy now as your baby gets stronger and they can stay in that four-point kneeling position so they're on their hands and their knees what you'll notice is your baby will start to rock backwards and forwards they might even start to use their arms and push themselves backwards when they're in this position what we want to do is encourage them to move forward and how you can do that is when they're in that four point position what you can do is place your hands behind their feet as they reach out with their one arm what you want to do is use your hand to support the opposite leg and to help move it forward so you might be able to just apply pressure and help them move that leg forward and then they'll reach out with the next arm and you can use the opposite leg for that one and you could use your hand to push their leg forward if your baby's not up to that because they start to fall over that's fine just leave them in that four point position where they'll continue to rock and move backwards and then as they get stronger they'll naturally start to move forwards now what you want to think about when you're teaching your baby to crawl is what surface you're getting your baby to crawl on if you're getting your baby to crawl on slippery surfaces so that would be like floorboards or tiles and they're wearing leggings you are making it really difficult for your baby to learn this motor pattern and that's simply because it's too slippery they can't get any traction so if you only have floorboards and tiles in your house then that's fine just get them to where they're nappy and take the leggings off or the pants off that will ensure that they can get traction which may stop them from crawling backwards and be able to actually move forwards because they're able to get grips with that leg and move in a forward motion and the seventh and final tip is that if you are using baby walkers or baby um jumpers or sitters just try and reduce the time you're using them or if you don't have them i would just avoid them completely if you want to know why i don't recommend these devices then check out this video but the more time your baby spends in a walker or in a sitter or a jumper means the less time they're spending on the floor practicing those overall motor skills that we want to progress to crawling so that's it parents those are the tips that will help you teach your baby how to crawl make sure you click on that free pdf document in the description box below and hopefully i'll see you next week where i'll share more parenting tips and tricks

Channel: Emma Hubbard

Views: 162,356

Rating: 4.9039173 out of 5

Keywords: help baby crawl, baby crawl exercises, baby crawling stages, baby crawling, stages of baby crawling, crawling, baby crawling development, when do babies start crawling, how to help baby crawl, crawling exercises, when can babies crawl, when do babies crawl, when should babies crawl, when babies can crawl, emma hubbard, baby not crawling, baby not crawling at 8 months, baby not crawling at 9 months, baby not crawling at 10 months, crawling developmental milestone

Id: aGIMVDOQL7c

Length: 8min 9sec (489 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 18 2021