Not Crawling Causes Problems Later?

Hi S.-

ALL of my boys have TERRIBLE handwriting...they all crawled/walked at different rates/times...

All my girls have 'nice' handwriting...they too crawled/walked at different rates/ages...

I would not worry too much...

Best luck!
Michele/cat

**and...for what it is worth, I have terrible handwriting...and I am a girl...and crawled and walked!! lol

They have found a trend in babies who don't crawl. A rather high percentage (I don't have time to look up the study, but you can probably Google it) of kids with dyslexia/reading/writing issues never crawled.

But it's correlation, not causation. Just because a baby doesn't crawl, it does not mean that the child will have dyslexia. My SIL (who never crawled) has dyslexia, so she made my niece (a preemie, so higher risk for learning disabilities) crawl before she walked. Otherwise, I think she would've skipped it. LOL

If you're concerned, then do some research. If not, don't worry about it! Even if a child has dyslexia, it's not the end of the world! My SIL has a civil engineering degree, and she LOVES to read, though she prefers audiobooks when she can get them because they take up a little less energy for her. =)

The answer depends on why the child isn't crawling. This has been a controversy over the years, but more is known about it now. Here is the 'expert' answer:

"No, absolutely not. "Some children just have excellent gross motor skills early on and are ready to walk sooner," says Susan Buttross, professor of pediatrics and chief of the division of child development and behavioral pediatrics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.

Years ago, Buttross explains, it was theorized that skipping the milestone of crawling caused learning disabilities and other developmental problems down the road. The result was an expensive therapy that involved teaching children with learning problems – even teenagers! – to crawl. There's never been any evidence that this therapy was helpful, says Buttross.

Some experts say that babies these days may be crawling later or even skipping the milestone altogether, perhaps because most are now placed on their back rather than on their tummy to sleep (to reduce the risk of SIDS). Whatever the reason, it's no cause for worry.

If a child has stiffness or weakness that's preventing him from crawling, his doctor will want to address that. Otherwise, it's onward and upward – with a creep, a roll, a scoot, or a hurry-up-and-toddle!"

Learn more about the developmental milestone of crawling:
http://www.babycenter.com/404_is-it-true-that-babies-who-...

I don't believe your pediatrician...I think he's drawing lines between two unconnected events in what is probably a very small group of people.

My first child didn't crawl. She just sat around until she could walk. She began writing, well, when she was two and at six has the most BEAUTIFUL handwriting (I am not kidding, she writes better than a lot of adults I know) and seems to have a better than average grasp with spacial orientation. Now, does that have anything to do with crawling/not crawling? Probably not...

...those two things are complete different skill sets. Skipping crawling (which many babies do these days because they don't spend any time on their tummies...any real time, anyhow) is a large motor skill, the others aren't.

Now, my second started crawling around 5 or 6 months because she slept on her tummy and spent a lot of time on it, and was just a more active baby...I have yet to see any advantage she has over her sister because she crawled.

I haven't experienced this, but I did study it in child development classes in college. Crawling is an important stepping stone for cognition. It's not a skill, it's an important piece of the puzzle of early brain development for spatial cognition.

Scholarly Research......... http://www.jstor.org/pss/1130258

http://www.medcentral.org/main/Whatssoimportantaboutcrawl...
http://www.myomancy.com/2006/08/how_important_i
http://www.internationalparentingassociation.org/BrainDev...
http://www.edhelperbaby.com/quest/Is_Crawling_Important.htm
http://www.earlyinterventionsupport.com/parentingtips/hab...
http://www.raise-smart-kid.com/crawling-benefits.html

My daughter didn't crawl. She always wanted to be upright. She did drag herself around by her forearms, but she started walking at 7 months.
My daughter didn't have any issues with motor skills or anything.
She's left handed and wrote letters backwards there for a while but that just took more practice. She was in kindergarten at 4, so she was perfectly healthy.
I suppose there could be a connection between not crawling and there being something else going on, but not crawling doesn't HAVE to be indicative of future problems. A friend's husband, who is a teacher, had her all worried because he told her if their baby didn't walk by 10 months or something like that, that she wouldn't be a good reader and would have trouble writing. Their daughter is fine and in high school now.
A friend's son walked late, talked late, everyone but me told her there was something wrong with him. The kid's a fricking genius. Well, he's a grown man now. He just did things in his own sweet time.

Please try not to let this scare you too much.

Best wishes.

My daughter never crawled. She hated being on the floor she would much rather have been up and cruising. She was cruising by 8 months and walking at 10 months. She is almost 6 and ready to being 1st grade with no problems at all. She has developed just fine in all areas. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

my daughter didnt crawl. she can write beautifully. my oldest did crawl and his handwriting should be called chicken scratch. :) i have never heard that about not crawling.

I have never heard anything about spacial orientation and academic difficulties, but we have a little friend who never learned to crawl, and he actually sees a physical therapist now (he's three), because his upper-body strength isn't quite up to level with his peers.

Other than that, no difficulties at all with him. Again, he's too young to see how well he can read or write or whatnot, but he seems to keep up pretty well with the more complicated games of his older brother and my oldest daughter (who are best friends).

It's actually quite true and when those "problems" occur later in life they need to be addressed through Occupational Therapy and many times the therapist teaches the child how to crawl again!

The reason that they struggle with spatial orientation and writing is two-fold. First, crawling builds trunk strength and bilateral coordination (moving your opposing sides in a fluid and purposeful way). Children who don't crawl and have a hard time sitting upright in a chair and using "two hands" to write and draw (one to "hold" one to "write"). Spatially, vision develops slowly over and in stages. They see up-close and then slowly they develop the ability to see distance. They learn to "scan" their visual field when learning to crawl.

There is a reason while milestones occur in a specific order. If you skip steps, you skip skills! This doesn't happen for ALL children who don't crawl, but when you work in this field and see what happens when skills don't develop, it's not a coincidence that a child who is stuggling with writing (the physical mechanics, not the concept development) also struggled to crawl or skipped it entirely.

I had responded to your question previously. My daughter who is now four has gross motor delay but she DID meet the milestone of crawling. She never rolled as a baby and that was more of a concern. She has low muscle tone and sensory processing disorder so learning disability is up in the air as far predicting what will happen. Personally she is learning just fine. Knows her letters and numbers and has tested for speech above her age level. My mother says I never crawled as a baby and just scooted around then walked. I have no learning disabilities but rather was in the gifted student program in school. My husband has LD and always had an IEP on school and he crawled and met all his milestones so you really can't tell. I would suggest again that you call Early Intervention for an evaluation. Just to ease your mind. I spent too much time worrying about my little girl and now regret it. Good luck to you.

I asked this question when my first was about 8 months old (now 3 1/2 - no issues) and was trying to walk before she would crawl because a friend of ours told us the same theory. That's what it is.. a theory. I received many responses of non-crawlers who are now brilliant, talented,well-developed adults. Also, if ability to write is affected then that must mean that most men and doctors never crawled as they seem to have chicken scratch for writing =)

For what it's worth, my oldest didn't really crawl, she walked early. And she's totally fine!! Ok - she doesn't have the best hand writing but she's not quite 7. It's fine. Just not "beautiful." I wouldn't worry.

My kids crawled for maybe a month and then they were walking. They are only 2 and 3, so many of their fine motor skills have yet to develop, but I haven't had any concerns about their development thus far.
A.

S.:

I wouldn't stress over this..I know it's easier said or typed than done - but over all - I truly believe that each child will grow at his or her own pace and the more we fret over something the harder it will be for them as they pick up on our cues and stress....

My brother didn't crawl until after he walked...he's fine. He has dyslexia - but that's not from crawling - and my brother is a true blue-collar worker.

There are a lot of theories out there on crawling and walking and spacial orientation....if you aren't happy or unsure of what your ped is saying - ask for a second opinion....it's okay to seek another opinion....

I think you are great!!

My son never crawled - he scooted on his butt starting at 7 months up until he walked at 13 months. Never even came close to crawling on his hands and knees, no army crawls, etc.

He is now 4 years old and I don't see any problems with his development at all. He is totally on par with other kids his age. He can write his name and several other letters. I don't notice any trouble with spatial orientation/perception. He can hit a baseball, kick a soccer ball, etc. He is very talkative and well-spoken (someone once told me non-crawlers have speech delays - not even remotely close with my son).

I don't think crawling is a "must have" skill or one that will cause problems later if your child doesn't master it. I DO think it's critical that your baby finds some way to move around. If he doesn't, I would see that as cause for concern and would think that some sort of therapy or intervention would be necessary.

If your baby is a preemie, things might be different. Neither of mine were preemies so I don't know the specific issues that might surround your circumstances.

I find that notion to be laughable, because my older daughter never crawled. She was obsessed with standing/walking at a very young age (she would scream until we helped her stand up, as young as 3 months old!). She also didn't roll over until she was nearly a year old - mostly because she HATED being face-down. Again, would scream until she threw up if we tried tummy time with her. So if your ped's theory is true, then my daughter would be a prime candidate for all kinds of problems!

Well, I'm here to tell you, my daughter gets straight A's in school (pretty easily), and has beautiful handwriting both in cursive and printing. At the age of 8, she is in a pre-pointe ballet class with girls who are 11 and 12, and she keeps up with them easily both in terms of strength, technical skill, and the ability to pick up choreography. She has also been in competitive cheerleading for several years, which would actually be a dangerous sport for someone with spatial relations issues! Fortunately, she has no spatial relations problems at all.

In my opinion, the reasons my daughter didn't roll over or crawl were entirely due to her personality. She is fairly stubborn, and extremely observant. She saw as a tiny baby that adults didn't crawl, therefore she was determined to walk! You could see the concentration and joy on her face as she stood up, and the frustration as she tried to walk and just didn't have the balance to do so at such a young age. But she sure wasn't about to crawl!

My younger daughter rolled, crawled, did all the "typical" stuff, and she is also smart as a whip, but is less neat in her handwriting, and is not as talented in dance as her sister. So... I'd say our family disproves the crawling theory! ;)

My oldest didn't crawl until after she started walking. In fact I don't think she actually crawled properly until she was two. She scooted or snaked around on her belly but did not crawl. She doesn't have any problems developmentally (she was slow in some things until she was 2.5 or 3 but she was a preemie). She is a normal 4 year old child. So, while some children who do not crawl on target may have developmental problems, some will not. I am not sure I believe that one causes the other.

NOOOO WAY. My daughter didn't crawl until she was literally almost 2, started walking at 10 months and its SO coordinated for her age, like scary style. She can throw a softball and catch tennis balls, kick balls you name it. And she's already started drawing and coloring in the lines sometimes. She has the vocabulary of a three year old, speaks in complete sentences and is always amazing us with something. So to answer your question your ped doesn't know what he's talking about!