Conference moira::parenting_v3

    Jacki,
    
    I believe this is an "old" theory/discovery.  Years 
    ago (sometime in the late '60's, I think) my Mom
    would go with a group of women to help this young
    boy learn how to crawl.  I know I don't have all
    the facts, I was only about 6 or 7 at the time.
    The way I remember it, he was older than me and he
    had bypassed crawling.  They were reteaching him
    so that he wouldn't have learning disabilities.
    
    Gee, this looks strange now that I've typed it in.
    I'll ask my Mom about it again...
    
    Since then, I have heard that it's okay if a baby
    never learns to crawl.
    
	I hope this calms your fears.
    	Linda

This almost qualifies as an urban legend, and like most urban legends
it has a grain of truth way down at the bottom under all the layers of
myth and misunderstandings.

Children with certain kinds of developmental disorders skip creeping.  Note,
not crawling, creeping -- the stage where they drag themselves around on 
their stomachs.  

In the late 1960's, developmental scientists discovered that a technique
called "patterning," in which a child's arms and legs were moved in the
motion of creeping for several hours several times a day, could apparently
"imprint" a new layer of learning in the brains of some of these
developmentally disabled children, enabling them to progress far 
beyond what was usual for that kind of disability.  _Reader's_Digest_
had a couple of heartwarming stories about the miracles that could be
worked by dedicated parents applying patterning to children everyone else
had given up on.

Some doctors, or writers of baby books, extrapolated from that that lack
of creeping would indicate the presence of the developmental disorder.
This is apparently a false corelation, though it took a while to establish 
that many perfectly normal kids did things in a different order than the 
baby books said they should.  [Must be because kids don't read baby books:) ]
 Doctors of the "better safe than sorry" school did as .1 mentions
and had parents of kids who didn't creep before they crawled go back 
and pick up those stages.   Then they expanded it to kids who didn't go 
through all the developmental stages in order, which is where crawling 
got involved.  

Other doctors took the patterning technique and tried to apply it to every
case of developmental handicap, even brain damage.  That didn't work 
either.  I don't think patterning is now used regularly to treat any
but cases in which all other treatment has failed to help the child.

--bonnie

>baby books said they should.  [Must be because kids don't read baby books:) ]
    
    I thought it was because writes of baby books don't study real kids!
    Don't they just read what other people have written about the way kids
    develop and behave and comment on that ?  Why should they bother to
    look at real kids ... after all other people have done that already ?!
    
    :-)
    
    Stuart

    7 1/2 months is somewhat early to show interest in crwling in my
    experience.  I don't think but one of my kids crawled before nine
    months.  And then they only went backwards.  The one that did crawl
    early walked at ten months.
    
    I also remember stories similar to that of the last noter about
    "patterning" for learning disabled children.
    

    My son, who is now 18, never crawled.  He started standing at 7 months
    and walked at 9 months...I couldn't believe it!  He's fine.
    My daughter on the other hand didn't walk until she was about 18
    months.  She figured why walk when I can get someone to carry me.
    
    Marie
    

    Gee, now I'm a bit worried. Neal is 8 months old and the most
    he can do when set on his stomach is the sky-diver's pose.
    Sometimes he spins himself like a board-game spinner. . . 
    He sits well by himself, when put in a sitting position. 
    And he actually runs in his walker. But the creeping and 
    crawling just isn't there. I can't imagine a baby just 
    skipping the creeping/crawling stages for walking. Isn't
    creeping/crawling a natural progression to walking?

    
    My daughter didn't crawl until she was 10 mos old, and crawled for 
    about 2 months, after that she was walking.
    She was a chunky kid, her arms and knees were simply not strong enough
    to carry her weigh until then. Also, she was a mellow baby, she wasn't
    very anxious to crawl - she loved the walker though.
    
    
    Eva.

    We were told by our son's PT that it is important to know how to crawl.
    Crawling develops the stomach muscles and hip flexors which help in overall
    balance later, and also with coordination of arms and legs.  It is also
    very similar to the way kids get up from the floor to standing and may help 
    in learning that.  Basically what I'm saying is... PT's feel it is an
    important part of development.

    re:  -1 

	PT?  Physical Therapist?  I'm just guessing.

    re:  .6  

	My daughter never really crawled and didn't walk until 15 months.  
	When she did walk she was *Really* ready and did very little 	
	falling.  She was a very content kid (then) and when we would
	place toys out of reach to encourage crawling she would reach
	once and then turn her attention to her fingers, the nap of 
	the rug.....

	No seeming ill effects - at 7 1/2 she is doing very well for
	her age in ballet.

	Norma

    My son, who is now 17, never crawled. In fact, he would run around his
    playpen with one hand on the rail. He really enjoyed his walker.
    
    Today, this 17 year old has completed 3 seasons of high school
    football, stands 6'1", and weighs in at 195lbs. So much for the
    physical effects of not crawling.
    
    Also, he has scored in the top 5% of Juniors in the U.S. (according
    to the PSAT - which is good because it might mean scholarship $$$),
    is in the top 10% of his school, and is an Eagle Scout. So much for the
    developmental concerns of not crawling.
    
    In short, don't worry - be happy!

    	My mother says I never crawled. That made things tough
    	on her. She said I weighed 41 pounds when I started to
    	walk. Mom has never weighed more than 114 pounds, so she
    	worked hard with me.
    
    	Today, at age 43, I'm 6'6'', 270 pounds. It didn't seem
    	to bother me any.