Crawling Before Walking?

My son's OT told us the same thing. Crawling is apparently a crucial part of language and learning development.... Seemed odd to me too, but that's what we were told.

This wouldn't even be on my radar of things to stress about. Babies develop at their own rate in their own way. Rolling, creeping, crawling, cruising, walking, whatever. None of it is worth stressing over. As for speech issues? Correlation does not equal causation.

My daughter is dyslexic and she did not crawl. The issue is that in crawling the left arm and right leg work together and visa versa. This evidently requires the left and right side of the brain to work together since each side of the brain controls the opposite side of the body. In dyslexia there is also a missing connection between the left and right side of the brain. But even if we had helped our daughter learn to crawl, she might still have had dyslexia. The book by Sally Shaywitz is the ultimate reference on dyslexia .

It doesn't matter because it's not like you can teach them these things. Babies will crawl when they crawl and walk when they walk. Not worth worrying about.

Lots of kids walk before they crawl. I wouldn't worry about it. At all.

I've also heard this connected to dyslexia. I don't know how accurate the information is, but every time I go to trainings to learn about dyslexia they mention the connection.

ETA: I love what ChristyLee put about correlation not equaling causation. Whether this has anything to do with speech or dyslexia or not, I wouldn't worry about it.

this is exactly the sort of thing that makes me clutch my head. not that the studies are 'wrong' or that it shouldn't be examined and researched and observed, but people jump on this sort of observation and the next thing you know we have legions of young mothers trying to prevent their kids from walking and trying to force them to crawl first because otherwise OMG my kid will have speech impediments.
once in an eon there will be a straight line causation/correlation between two activities, but in 99.9% of cases there's a LOT more going on. and when you oversimplify, you miss out on way, way too much critical information.
so........ if i were a young mother today and my pediatrician gave me this information, i'd certainly watch my kid closely and keep track, but no way would i then leap to preventing my kid from pulling himself up when his own unique, utterly individual timeline prompted him to do so. i might make crawling a fun game with him, but if i had a non-crawler who had zero interest in it, i certainly wouldn't try to force him to.
each generation needs to find new things to freak out over.
khairete
S.

Wish I could tell you to take it like a grain of salt and babies will develop at their own pace blah blah..... The last year I have spent researching this very topic. Crawling like other physical movements develop brain. I won't go on n on but believe me I could. In Europe, Japan Australia to name a few.....this topic has been researched at great lengths and contrary to what the other moms say there is plenty of data and research to back up this claim. No not all babies who don't crawl will develop speech issues....but many do. Just like smokers not all of them get cancer but you know the rest. I have been researching this because it has happened to both of my children. And it's actually not limited to just speech. It can impact sensory processing, auditorial and even ADD. If your interested look into primitive reflexes and retained primitive reflexes. It's new if you consider 40-50 years new. It's sad that these moms who aren't aware of this information simply tell you to blow it off? I will be applying for grants soon to get this information into the public school system where children are struggling because of these issues. But it's not just lack of crawling that has impacted this. All of the strollers, walkers, bouncers, swings and every apparatus we use has minimized movements that are crucial to brain development. First we blamed the student, then the parent, on to the teacher and finally society and its iPads for all of the under achievement in our education system. Learning disabilities are impacting poor and rich, white and black..... Slowly but surely this information is making its way into mainstream. Give your culd as much floor time and tummy time as possible. Good luck

Nope, let your child develop on their scheduled her pace, her style.

Our daughter walked unassisted by 6 months. Really, never crawled because she liked cruising so much.

She also never really learned to ride a bike either, but she is a wonderful person, national merit scholar, artistic, kind and still fiercely independent. And at Christmas jumped on a bike and was able to ride! Can only make right turns, hah, but Is determined to learn this year.. She is 24 yrs old.

I've heard it. My son never crawled on all fours. He scooted on his butt from 9-13 months before learning to walk. He talked up a storm much earlier than most of his same-age friends. He doesn't have any speech impediments either.

My eldest son never crawled and started walking at 9 months. I was also told the stories about language and reading difficulties. He did not speak early, but when he did speak it was in sentences. He is 15 now and is enrolled in college classes. He is a horrible speller but is otherwise very, very bright--as in 99% for the PSAT exam as a 15 year old. I never crawled either. I am an English professor. I am also very bad at spelling, but it has not been a problem. Is the not crawling related to the spelling thing? I sort of doubt it. Even if it is, I would not worry about this.

Yes, my daughter's doctor mentioned that there is some research on the connection between crawling and reading, speech and spatial awareness but she said it was controversial. My now 7 year old never crawled. She was a preemie so they thought maybe she was just a little slow on the physical milestones. She was a late walker as well. But man can that child talk. No problems with her speech. She is clear, pronounces things correctly and has a vocabulary better than many adults. She reads and comprehends well above grade level. Spatial awareness is lacking. She is clumsy and has problems understanding personal space. She doesn't have difficulty with abstract concepts, which is common in children with spatial awareness problems.

My 4 year old has trouble pronouncing certain sounds. She crawled early.

All this to say, in my opinion, children may or may not have difficulties because of crawling or lack thereof. I don't see overwhelming proof on one side or the other. Plus, it doesn't really matter. Either they crawl or don't. The need speech therapy or they don't. Out of my hands.

Kids do stuff when they're ready. It's not your job to get down and try to make the kiddo crawl before walking or walk before crawling. Some don't do it at all and some do it early but walk late or vice versa.

Don't stress about this it will happen when it happens.

If they crawl at all they learn all the need from it. No matter if it's when they are 5 months old or 5 years old. It still makes the connections in the brain it makes.

Well, my daughter crawled before she walked, and still had speech issues.

My older brother walked before he crawled, and didn't have any... Though my younger brother (who was a VERY late walker...) had speech problems and dyslexia....

My SIL also has speech issues (still does as an adult) and she did hings in the "right" order...

My opinion? Take this matter with a grain of salt. Encourage crawling, but don't go lining up a speech therapist if he happens to walk first. ;)

Updated

Well, my daughter crawled before she walked, and still had speech issues.

My older brother walked before he crawled, and didn't have any... Though my younger brother (who was a VERY late walker...) had speech problems and dyslexia....

My SIL also has speech issues (still does as an adult) and she did hings in the "right" order...

My opinion? Take this matter with a grain of salt. Encourage crawling, but don't go lining up a speech therapist if he happens to walk first. ;)

My oldest never really crawled and her speech is fine. My youngest took longer to walk and definitely crawled. She is the one who needed speech therapy. She is completely fine now though. So not a hard and fast rule but there likely is some connection when looking at a large number of people. There are always exceptions and such. I wouldn't stress and force crawling but probably not a bad idea to really encourage it. I have heard of this type of study and connection too btw.

My son never crawled and went straight into walking at 11 months. He just was obsessed before that with standing, pulling himself up to standing, and trying to walk while holding something like the side of a table. I remember being worried about it. But it turns out he was an early talker and spoke well with a large vocabulary very young. So, it didn't seem to affect him negatively.

I had read the same thing, related to the 'wiring' in the brain, and also that crawling affects necessary spinal curve development. However, both my girls only barely crawled (for 2-3 weeks or so) before full-fledged walking at 9 mos and 10 mos and both are doing great developmentally (physical/speech/etc.) one and three years (respectively) down the line.

This has been known for awhile. My kids both crawled first, but not for very long. They walked "early"... but neither had any speech issues. But yes, there is information out there on this... just google. You'll see. It isn't new information.

Our Physcical Therapist said that our son needed to crawl before walking to help build the front chest muscles which would help him later with posture and other stuff, but I don't remember what they were because we were focused on posture at the time. She even had us delay letting him practice standing and walking until he had been crawling for long enough. Boy he didn't appreciate that! Anyway, I know that it is really important for several things.

Our son also has generalized communication disorder, which means that he doesn't really engage with us, or speak to us, but I will say that he does repeat long passages of a movie or tv show, especially Thomas the Train, and his enunciation is pretty good. Especially for a 3 year old boy who didn't talk last year. So, I don't know if the extended crawling had something to do with it or not, but I wouldn't change a thing.

I can't see how the doctor's office is connecting speech impediments with early walking or lack of crawling. Did you ask the doctor to explain this connection? Crawling does help build connections between the two sides of the brain, but I've never heard of any reason to worry that it was related to speech impediments.

I searched "early walking and speech impediment" and found nothing about a connection though I found this, below. The "importance of crawling" mentioned below is about motor development and not speech, but the fact that speech wasn't even mentioned in relation to crawling in this and other articles has me wondering if there's been any scientific study on it at all:

"Though many experts will attest to the importance of crawling, others adamantly argue that skipping it is no big deal. "It's a prominent misconception that it's important for kids to include crawling in their development," says Pamela High, M.D., director of developmental-behavioral pediatrics at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, and a professor of pediatrics at Brown Medical School. "Before parents freak out because their child doesn't crawl, we need to have data that kids who don't will have any long-term negative developmental consequence, and there currently is none," she says. "It remains conjecture."
http://www.parenting.com/article/do-babies-need-to-crawl (Parenting Magazine)

The "What to Expect" web site had this:
"What not to worry about: Crawling is not even included on most assessments of developmental progress, so if your baby is a late crawler (or never crawls at all), it's not a cause for concern. However, if she’s also behind in other developmental areas, such as language, social interactions or other motor skills, or if she is not able to use both sides of her body equally well, bring it up with her doctor."
http://www.whattoexpect.com/first-year/crawling/

Rather than worrying about this, you should ask the doctor to explain it in more detail. Maybe there's some link in a study that isn't known about at parenting sites yet. But the office shouldn't just toss that at parents without explanation. If you heard this from another parent in the waiting room etc. I would absolutely ask the doctor instead.

If this was from a doctor or nurse, did they mention this to you because your child is walking and didn't crawl first?