You may have heard that “Crawling isn’t an important milestone,” but let’s reframe that a bit. Crawling is a motor milestone of the first year that not all babies master or master in the same way. Some babies skip crawling and many who do are juuuuust fine but it's important to make sure your baby doesn't skip it because they're missing important foundational strengths or skills. (Learn why some babies skip crawling)

Because I'm a pediatric Occupational Therapist, my answer to nearly every question that begins with, "How can I help my child learn to...." is PLAY. Let's look at ways to offer play to best set the stage for your baby to work on their pre-crawling skills!

Play To Prepare Your Baby For Crawling

Offer Lots of Tummy Time

Reason 4,302 that Tummy Time is awesome and vital for your baby's development: belly-down play strengthens the muscles required for crawling and utilizes important pre-crawling reflexes and reflex integration (nerdy explanation: some reflexes need to integrate or disappear and others need to emerge or appear in order to support crawling. Tummy Time also helps your baby stretch and strengthen out of normal asymmetries from their womb position or mild Torticollis that can be barriers to crawling.

Curious about asymmetry and Torticollis in newborns? Learn more in this post.

Play on Different Types of Surfaces

Baby pressing up into hands and knees on soft mattress with cheek down.

Offer your baby a variety of different surfaces to play on in order to experience their body in new ways and gain valuable body awareness. Once your little one is a few months old and able to consistently hold their head up in Tummy Time, try letting them play on hardwood or linoleum floors. Place their blanket on thick, soft grass. Let them wiggle and move on a mattress (with close supervision - eyes on baby within arm's reach). You may notice that they have different skills or movements on different surfaces.

Seated Play

In seated play, your little one has the opportunity to twist and turn her torso to explore and touch toys. This rotational movement is an important precursor to crawling. Placing toys to either side can encourage twisting and encourage your baby to practice the beginning of the rotational movement they’ll use to get into and out of the crawling position.

Offer Rolling Toys

One of my favorite rolling toys is a simple playground ball from the drugstore. Not only does it encourage two hand play, it naturally rolls away, offering a great motivator to move!

Touch Sensory Play For The Hands

If you notice your baby places fisted, instead of open, hands on the floor or is resistant to placing hands on the floor - increase the amount of tactile sensory play they are offered. Positive touch experiences with the hands can help desensitize mild sensory sensitivities. Here are a few play ideas:

Sensory Bags // Touching Pan of Fresh Herbs // Items from the Grocery Store

Expect Some Frustration

Babies are motivated to move by objects just out of reach. Babies who haven’t mastered movement are likely to be frustrated by objects just out of reach. Just before babies start to move around the floor, many of them go through a period of increased frustration. They may get more fussy or whiney in floortime play. It's a phenomenon that may feel annoying or may make you feel like you’re doing something wrong. But this frustration often marks the time when babies’ drive to move is increasing - they start to realize movement towards a desired object or person is possible, but don't quite have the skills yet. Be patient, give your little one gentle, encouraging words and resist the urge to jump in and “rescue” or “fix” at the first whine or whimper.

Reflection:

What is my baby doing in sitting? Do they lean and put one hand down on the floor? Do they twist to reach things a bit behind them?
If my baby is going through some pre-crawling frustration, what am I making it mean? How can I feel like I’m reassuring while also allowing space for problem-solving when desired objects are out of reach?