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Crawling: a necessary skill?
My 11 month old is not crawling yet. Instead, he shuffles along on his bottom. He looks as if he may start walking without crawling. While I am pleased that he is making the effort to move independently, I have heard that an inability to crawl can signal possible learning difficulties. Is crawling a necessary skill?
If you look at most formal developmental milestones, you will find that crawling is not there. This is due to the wide range of ages at which babies may learn to crawl. And in fact, there are a good number of babies who never learn the typical crawling motion because they get comfortable with some other method of moving around. This has led to a number of myths about babies who walk without learning to crawl. One popular myth is that these babies will grow up to be wildly adventurous and difficult to handle presumably because they have ‘skipped’ the crawling stage. Other ones involve problems with learning later in life. On the other hand, another myth states that these children grow up to be more intelligent, presumably because they didn't ‘need’ the crawling stage.
Your baby's curiosity about moving around should be fostered by playing with him. Enticing him to get from one place to another develops his strength and social skills. If he manages to get around without crawling, that's OK. The child who does not crawl and is at the appropriate stages of development is at no greater risk for learning disabilities than the child who crawls.
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