What Does It Mean if the Baby Doesn't Crawl but Stand Up First

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© 2019 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved

When do babies clamber for the starting time time?

Studies propose that approximately 50% of babies begin crawling past eight months. But some babies may start before vi months, and others may not crawl until later eleven months, if ever.

If your baby doesn't crawl, does that mean something is wrong? No. It's perfectly normal for babies to skip crawling altogether.

Babies aren't developmentally "programmed" to crawl. Instead, babies are motivated to experiment with dissimilar ways of moving, and settle on whatever method seems the most rewarding.

Thus, a baby might cull 1 of these styles of crawling:

• belly-crawling,
• hands-and-knees crawling, or
• hands-and-feet crawling;

or a baby might adopt to motility using one of these alternative methods:

• lesser-shuffling (too known as "scooting"),
• pace-scooting (a kind of tripod shuffle),
• cruising (walking while grasping handholds), or
• rolling,

all of which I describe in detail below. And information technology's non unusual for a babe to combine several techniques, or improvise his or her own, quirky mode of locomotion.

Why so much variety? Y'all might think babies would all converge on the well-nigh efficient, all-time style to move from place to place.

But that's the crux of information technology: Babies may not concur well-nigh what's best.

For example, some infants may notice itch too uncomfortable, or adopt a grade of locomotion that permits them to stay in an upright position.

It's also clear that the environment plays a role. Every bit we'll meet, babies are more than likely to crawl when they have been given plenty of opportunities to motility freely while lying on their stomachs.

So permit's have a closer expect at the development of crawling and other modes of infant locomotion. When do babies clamber, why is there then much variation, and what can you lot await to run across during your baby'south first year?

Here'southward an evidence-based guide, with answers to frequently asked questions near itch.

How do babies go started with crawling?

Information technology begins with "tummy time," those supervised sessions that your infant spends lying awake on his or her breadbasket.

During stomach time, babies build up their neck and shoulder muscles. They learn how to hold up their heads and shoulders, supporting themselves with their elbows.

This forcefulness and muscle control is essential for crawling, but babies don't just end there. As infants becomes stronger, they may try some of these moves:

• doing the "plank" (balancing on artillery and feet, or on hands and knees)
• turning in circles (pivoting)
• rocking back and forth on hands and knees
• moving forward a step (either on belly, or on hands and knees)
• shifting back and along between lying prone and sitting up
• trying to move forwards, but pushing backwards instead

Practice babies accept to master all of these skills before they begin to crawl?

No. Merely it's likely your baby will exercise at least one before taking the plunge (Adolf et al 1998).

Exercise babies have to sit up earlier they crawl?

Once once again, the answer is no. Babies can begin belly-itch earlier they have accomplished this milestone.

Can y'all exercise anything to assist your baby get started?

Yeah! Become down on the floor with your baby, and make centre contact. Use smiles and talk to your baby to practise holding his or her head upwards. As your baby gets stronger, encourage your baby to approach you.

And if your baby is struggling to larn the secret of forward propulsion — trying to move forward, but pushing backwards instead — endeavour providing some resistance. Place your hands behind your baby'south feet, then your baby can push confronting them.

What'south side by side? For many babies, it'south abdomen-crawling. Other babies go on directly to easily-and-knees crawling. And some babies

Styles of crawling

Belly-crawling: The commando crawl and the inchworm crawl

When we think of itch, we oft envision babies scampering around on hands and knees, their tummies held loftier above the basis. Simply some babies acquire to crawl along on their bellies instead.

Is belly-crawling normal?

Yes, it's entirely normal. In fact, when baby locomotion expert Karen Adolf and her colleagues studied the development of itch in 28 American infants, they found that about half the infants started their crawling careers with some form of belly-crawling.

When do babies crawl on their bellies?

It varies from baby to babe. In the study by Adolf's team, near abdomen-crawlers began former between the ages of 5 and eight.5 months.

What does belly-crawling look like?

In that location are ii main styles:

1. The ground forces crawl, aka "commando crawl." This is easy to place: A baby, lying prone (belly down), pulls himself forwards with her arms, swiveling to the left and correct as he moves.

Most of the propulsion comes from the upper body; the legs help a bit, fishtailing from side to side. Simply the baby is mostly dragging himself across the floor with his arms and shoulders.

At any given point in an ground forces crawl, the baby doesn't have to worry almost losing his balance. His weight is on his belly and thighs.

2. The "inchworm crawl. " In this variant of the belly-clamber, a babe pulls herself forward with both arms simultaneously, rising up slightly and then landing with a belly flop.

In the rise position, the infant is counterbalanced briefly on her extremities, a flake similar someone doing the plank.

Is your baby a commando crawler or an inchworm crawler?

Commando crawling is more common, but it's not unusual for a baby to do a fleck of both. And whichever grade of abdomen-crawling your baby favors, expect to see your baby graduate to hands-and-knees itch (below). Belly-crawlers don't remain belly-crawlers for long.

What if my baby doesn't belly-crawl?

That's naught to worry about. One-half the babies in Karen Adolf's study skipped belly-crawling altogether, and, as we'll see, it's not unusual for babies to use other methods of locomotion.

Why? If you've ever tried belly-crawling, you know that it's very arduous! Depending on the surface and your speed, information technology tin can even be painful. Abdomen flops on the basis can smart. And so many babies switch their focus on other motor skills instead.

The archetype clamber: Moving on easily-and-knees

What about archetype crawling? When practise babies crawl on their hands and knees?

Some researchers call this "creeping," but I prefer the term "hands-and-knees crawling," because it's more than descriptive of what babies do: Babies balance their weight on easily and knees, keeping their abdomens lifted off the footing. Here's an example:

If your baby has started abdomen-crawling, you can expect him or her to switch to hands-and-knees crawling within a couple of months. But belly-crawling isn't a prerequisite. Some babies brainstorm hands-and-knees itch without any prior feel with abdomen-crawling.

Whatever your baby's history, you'll likely see signs earlier the fateful twenty-four hours. Babies tend to practice balancing first, rocking back and forth on their hands and knees.

And those first steps?

According to an international study by the Earth Health Arrangement, babies usually begin hands-and-knees crawling erstwhile between 6 and eleven months, and approximately half of all babies brainstorm crawling by 8.3 months (WHO 2006).

Alternatives to archetype crawling: How else exercise babies move from place to identify?

As noted above, babies discover or invent other methods of locomotion. Here are some of the near mutual alternatives.

The conduct crawl

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This blazon of crawling is like easily-and-knees crawling. The infant's abdomen is held high, merely the baby keeps his or her knees off the ground, balancing instead on hands and feet.

The "step-crawl mix"

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Another approach, sometimes called the "footstep-crawl mix," looks like a bit like a mash-up of hands-and-knees crawling and bear-crawling. Babies crawl on the knee of i leg, while stepping with the foot of the other (Patrick et al 2012).

Bottom-shuffling or scooting

Some babies scoot along on their bottoms, sitting up and using their legs  to power themselves across the floor.

This fashion of movement has been call "scooting," "hitching," or "bottom-shuffling," but any you lot telephone call it, the fundamental feature is that the baby'south bottom bears his or her weight, and the torso is an upright position.

Step-scooting

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Babies as well may move along tripod-style, in a mode researchers called "stride-scooting" (Patrick et al 2012). Information technology looks a fiddling similar bottom-shuffling, except that babies employ 1 of their arms to assist pull themselves along.

Cruising

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Some babies prefer to spend their time learning to "cruise" – to stand up and walk  while holding the edges of furniture and other supports.

Rolling

A few babies become from identify to place by rolling on their sides.

So there isn't whatsoever unmarried, correct way to move. Different babies make different choices, and information technology's normal for private babies to use more 1 mode of locomotion.

Your baby might alternate between hands-and-knees crawling and bear walking. Or switch back and forth between scooting and some other course of motion (Adolf et al 1998; Patrick et al 2012).

Other questions about crawling

Why practice some babies showtime itch so much later than others?

1. Torso blazon plays a part: Slimmer, lankier babies crawl sooner

Information technology's hard to drag your body around if yous're carrying a lot of extra weight! So leaner babies – who have a more than favorable ratio of muscle to torso fat – take an early advantage.

As Karen Adolf's squad noticed in their longitudinal study of itch, "Smaller, slimmer, more maturely proportioned infants tended to crawl at earlier ages than larger, chubbier infants."

ii. In improver, babies crawl earlier when they become lots of "tummy time."

Research confirms that itch is linked with the amount of waking time babies spend lying on their stomachs. Babies who get lots of "tum fourth dimension" and exercise tend to crawl at an earlier historic period (Kuo et al 2008; Lobo and Galloway 2012).

3. Motivation matters also.

Equally noted, belly-crawling is grueling work, and hands-and-knees crawling requires a lot of residual command. Some babies may decide information technology'due south non worth the trouble, and focus on learning other ways to motility.

How before long after crawling do babies begin to walk?

Every bit you might expect, information technology varies.

For example, in a written report of American babies, the average (median) time between the onset of itch and the onset of walking was approximately 4 months.

Just the range was large. One baby remained in the crawling phase for 8.5 months. Some other baby learned to crawl and walk on the same twenty-four hour period (Adolf et al 2011)!

For more information well-nigh walking, see my opens in a new windowParenting Science guide.

Exercise babies ever skip crawling and go straight to walking?

Yeah, that does happen.

Anthropologist David Tracer notes that there are entire cultures where this is common. Earlier learning to walk, babies in these cultures motility around by bottom-shuffling. Tracer believes that lesser-shuffling — not crawling — was the mode of pre-walking locomotion well-nigh favored by our hunter-gatherer ancestors (Tracer 2009).

Nowadays, in contemporary Western countries, crawling is the norm. Nevertheless, a notable portion of babies in these societies decline crawling in favor of other methods.

For instance, in a recent written report tracking the development of 47,000 babies in Norway, researchers found that about vii% of children favored scooting or shuffling, not crawling. All the same these babies learned to walk, merely as crawlers did (Storvold et al 2013).

Similarly, a researcher working in the 1980s constitute that near 9% of British babies preferred to bottom-shuffle. And vii% of babies transitioned to walking without having previously crawled or shuffled (Robson 1984).

Do parental practices impact the evolution of crawling?

Yeah. In societies where parents discourage itch — or provide infants with less "tummy time" — babies are less probable to crawl (Super 1976; Hopkins and Westra 1988; Hogbin 1943).

At that place's also evidence that babies are influenced by cultural practices concerning wear and the weather.

Consider this historical example. Back in 1900, crawling was widespread in the United States, merely less prevalent than it is today, with approximately forty% of babies using some alternative means of locomotion, like bottom-shuffling (Trettian 1900).

Why was crawling less mutual? Karen Adolf thinks it has to practice with the long dressing gowns that babies used to article of clothing. "When infants tried to crawl, their knees caught at the edge of their long gowns, pinning them in place"(Adolf 2008). So babies were more likely to refuse itch in favor of culling solutions.

Nowadays, long dressing gowns aren't typical, but researchers have noticed an interesting pattern around the world:

In countries with marked seasons, babies tend to clamber earlier if they were built-in in the winter (Bai 2018).

Why? Such infants reach the historic period of 6 months  — prime time for learning to clamber — during the summer, when their parents dress them in less restrictive clothing, and allow them more opportunities to play on the ground.

It seems, then, to come up downwards to very applied considerations. Babies are more than likely to crawl when parents go far easy for them to learn the necessary skills.

Why are some babies meliorate at hands-and-knees crawling than others?

Once once more, it comes down to practice.

When Karen Adolf's team analyzed hands-and-knees crawling, they found that the speediest, most proficient easily-and-knees crawlers tended to have certain things in mutual.

Before the onset of hands-and-knees crawling, these babies had racked up more experience with "tummy time" skills, including swimming in place, pivoting around in circles on their stomachs, and rocking back and forth on hands and knees.

In addition, babies who had a history of abdomen-crawling had an reward: From the very beginning days that they adopted hands-and-knees crawling, they were faster and more efficient (Adolf et al 1998).

So all that hard work pays off. If you train like a marine, y'all will accept a head kickoff with hands-and-knees itch.

If a baby doesn't crawl, will he or she exist any slower to achieve the milestone of walking?

Peradventure, but research suggests in won't make much divergence in the long-run. And in some cases, babies who skip crawling actually end upwards walking sooner.

For instance, in the Norwegian study, the scooting, shuffling babies took an boilerplate of 3.5 weeks longer to take their first, independent steps (Storvold et al 2013). Besides, the British study found that bottom-shufflers walked at a slightly later age (Robson 1984).

Yet the earliest walkers in the British study were the ones who began walking without having been observed to engage in any prior course of locomotion, a finding replicated by a small report of Turkish children (Cimbiz and Bayazit 2005).

When should I worry?

Equally we've seen, information technology's normal for some babies to turn down crawling in favor of other modes of locomotion. So y'all shouldn't worry merely because your baby isn't crawling.

As long as your baby shows progress over time — developing means of moving from place to place — yous should feel reassured that your baby'southward skills are on track.

But if your baby isn't making progress with any sort of locomotion by the historic period of 12 months — or shows evidence of weakness or poor control on i side of the torso — talk with your pediatrician.

And call back: You should always consult your pediatrician if something doesn't feel right. If at that place is a problem, early on intervention can help get your infant back on track.

Wondering when your baby volition begin walking? And what stages of development to watch for?

Be sure to cheque out my article, "When practise babies start walking?"

This commodity explains:

• signs that your infant will begin walking soon
• stages of learning to walk
• the timing of (i) learning to walk with back up; and (two) learning to walk independently
• cultural and parenting factors that can speed upward (or slow down the process)

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More evidence-based information about babies

You lot can read more most your baby's development in this opens in a new windowParenting Science guide.

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References: When do babies clamber?

Adolph KE, Berger SE, Leo AJ. 2011. Developmental continuity? Crawling, cruising, and walking. Dev Sci. 14(2):306-18

Adolph KE, Cole WG, Komati M, Garciaguirre JS, Badaly D, Lingeman JM, Chan GL, Sotsky RB. 2012. How do you learn to walk? Thousands of steps and dozens of falls per solar day. Psychol Sci. 23(11):1387-94

Adolph KE, Vereijken B, Denny MA. 1998. Learning to crawl. Child Dev. 1998 Oct;69(5):1299-312.

Bai Y, Shang G, Wang 50, Sunday Y, Osborn A, Rozelle S. 2018. The relationship between birth flavour and early on childhood development: Evidence from northwest rural China. PLoS One. thirteen(10):e0205281.

Bottos Chiliad, Dalla Barba B, Stefani D, Pettenà 1000, Tonin C, D'Este A. 1989. Locomotor strategies preceding contained walking: prospective study of neurological and language development in 424 cases. Dev Med Kid Neurol. 31(1):25-34.

Cimbiz A and Bayazit V. 2005. Effects of infant crawling experience on range of motility. Neurosciences 10 (1): 34-forty.

Hogbin HI. 1943. A New Guinea infancy: From conception to weaning in Wogeo. Oceania 13: 285-309.

Hopkins B and Westra T. 1988. Maternal handling and motor development: an intracultural study. Genet Soc Gen Psychol Monogr. 114(iii):377-408.

Karasik LB, Tamis-LeMonda CS, Adolph KE. 2011. Transition from crawling to walking and infants' actions with objects and people. Kid Dev. 82(four):1199-209.

Kretch KS, Franchak JM, Adolph KE. 2014. Crawling and walking infants see the world differently. Child Dev. 85(4):1503-18.

Kuo YL, Liao HF, Chen PC, Hsieh WS, Hwang AW. 2008. The influence of wakeful decumbent positioning on motor development during the early life. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 29(5):367-76.

Lobo MA and Galloway JC. 2012. Enhanced handling and positioning in early on infancy advances development throughout the showtime year. Child Dev. 83(4):1290-302

Patrick SK, Noah JA, Yang JF. 2012. Developmental constraints of quadrupedal coordination beyond itch styles in human infants. J Neurophysiol. 107(11):3050-61.

Robson P. 1984. Prewalking locomotor movements and their apply in predicting continuing and walking. Child Intendance Health Dev. 198410(5):317-30.

Størvold GV, Aarethun K, Bratberg GH. 2013. Historic period for onset of walking and prewalking strategies. Hum Dev. 89(ix):655-9.

Super CM. 1976. Ecology furnishings on motor development: the instance of "African baby precocity". Dev Med Child Neurol. 18(5):561-7.

Tracer DP. 2009. Babe carrying and prewalking locomotor development: proximate and evolutionary perspectives. Proceedings of the 78th Annual Meeting of the American-Clan-of-Physical-Anthropologists; Chicago, IL.

Trettien AW. 1900. Creeping and walking. The American Journal of Psychology. 12:1–57.

WHO Multicentre Growth Reference Study Group. 2006. WHO Motor Evolution Study: windows of accomplishment for vi gross motor development milestones. Acta Paediatr Suppl. 450:86-95.

Content of "When do babies clamber?" last modified three/25/2020

Image and video credits for "When do babies clamber?"

title image of baby learning to clamber by opens in a new windowDouglas Lemoine / flickr

image of of smiling baby engaged in "tummy fourth dimension" by opens in a new windowThe Wu's Photograph Country / flickr

Paired images of baby abdomen-crawling by opens in a new windowJessica Merz / flickr

video of classic, easily-and-knees crawl by the U.S. Center for Disease Control

image of baby "acquit crawling" past William D

image of baby step-scooting by opens in a new window mliu92 / flickr

epitome of baby demonstrating a step-crawl mix by opens in a new windowSubharnab Majumdar / flickr

youtube video clip of baby bottom-shuffling by Mal Chia

image of babe cruising by opens in a new window Rob / flickr

What Does It Mean if the Baby Doesn't Crawl but Stand Up First

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