Why Your Baby Doesn't Need To Be Taught How To Move
Gross Motor Skills development is mapped out in a predictable timeline for all neuro-typical infants. Babies reach what we refer to as milestones as their neurological development progresses from head to toe in the first year.
Babies learn through experience - they repeat a process until it becomes automatic and then move on to the next. We don't teach babies these skills. Instincts drive development. No matter how enthusiastically you model walking to your six month old or support them in an upright position, they cannot walk until they are developmentally ready.
Your baby doesn’t need any equipment to learn these skills - no matter what advertising tells you. Humans have learned to roll over, sit up, crawl stand and walk for millions of years which nothing more complex than the natural surfaces surrounding them.
There are no instructions for teaching your baby to move their body. No step-by-step processes. No classes. No tools. Don’t be fooled by clever marketing. If you are looking for guidance on infant development, ask your nurse or doctor.
There is a range of ages considered typical for each stage, because all babies are individual. An “early walker” is not a genius and a “late walker” is not a concern. They are just the bookends of the normal spectrum of variation.
New Data For a New Century
There was great interest in the predictability of gross motor development in infancy in the early 20th century.
The First Two Years was first published in 1931.
A study of the locomotor development of twenty-five babies and its relationship to anatomical and physical development, individual differences, etc. Interesting theoretical implications for genetic and educational psychology. An admirable piece of scientific observation and much suggestive material on method for others interested in this field. Journal of Educational Sociology, 1932
WHO Motor Development Study: windows of achievement for six gross motor development milestones.
In 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a whole new set of standards for evaluating and assessing the development of children from birth to 5 years. WHO Motor Development Study: windows of achievement for six gross motor development milestones. As part of the WHO Multicentre Growth Reference Study, longitudinal data were collected to describe the attainment of six gross motor milestones by children aged 4 to 24 mo in Ghana, India, Norway, Oman and the USA. This is the same cohort studied for the Child Growth Standards, informally known as “The WHO Growth Charts”. The 8,440 children included in the research were raised in environments that minimized constraints to growth such as poor diets and infection. In addition, their mothers followed health practices such as breastfeeding their children and not smoking during and after pregnancy. In this study, trained fieldworkers assessed 816 children at scheduled visits (monthly in year 1, bimonthly in year 2).
About 90% of children achieved five of the milestones following a common sequence, and just 4.3% did not exhibit hands-and-knees crawling. The windows represent normal variation in ages of milestone achievement among healthy children.
The six gross motor milestones WHO examined in babies were the following:
Sitting without support
Child sits up straight with the head erect for at least 10 seconds. Child does not use arms or hands to balance body or support position
Standing with assistance
Child stands in upright position on both feet, holding onto a stable object (e.g., furniture) with both hands without leaning on it. The body does not touch the stable object, and the legs support most of the body weight. Child thus stands with assistance for at least 10 seconds
Hands-and-knees crawling
Child alternately moves forward or backward on hands and knees. The stomach does not touch the supporting surface. There are continuous and consecutive movements, at least three in a row
Walking with assistance
Child is in upright position with the back straight. Child makes sideways or forward steps by holding onto a stable object (e.g., furniture) with one or both hands. One leg moves forward while the other supports part of the body weight. Child takes at least five steps in this manner
Standing alone
Child stands in upright position on both feet (not on the toes) with the back straight. The legs support 100% of the child’s weight. There is no contact with a person or object. Child stands alone for at least 10 seconds
Walking alone
Child takes at least five steps independently in upright position with the back straight. One leg moves forward while the other supports most of the body weight. There is no contact with a person or object
The typical age range (in months) for each milestone is:
1. Sitting without support: 3.8 – 9.2 months
2. Standing with assistance: 4.8 – 11.4 months
3. Hands-and-knees crawling: 5.2 – 13.5 months
4. Walking with assistance: 5.9 – 13.7 months
5. Standing alone: 6.9 – 16.9 months
6. Walking alone: 8.2 – 17.6 months
The average (mean) age for healthy children achieving each milestones is as follows:
1. Sitting without support: 6 months (with 1.1 month standard deviation, SD)
2. Standing with assistance: 7.6 months (with 1.4 month SD)
3. Hands-and-knees crawling: 8.5 months (with 1.7 month SD)
4. Walking with assistance: 9.2 months (with 1.5 month SD)
5. Standing alone: 11 months (with 1.9 month SD)
6. Walking alone: 12.1 months (with 1.8 month standard deviation)
Gross Motor Development in the First Four Months
Before all this can happy, your baby needs to progress through some important stages.
“Tummy Time” is important for a variety of reasons but primarily it positions babies at the starting line for development. As the central nervous system “comes online” down the spinal column, newborn babies gain control of their upper body progressively. From lifting the head just enough to turn their face from one side to the other while on their tummy, they soon move to lifting their head high enough to clear their chin from the surface they lay on. Gradually they progressively increase the distance their head is raised as shoulders, elbows and wrists gain strength and control.
Now your baby has the foundations to roll, sit and crawl. Rolling is the least predictable milestone. Most babies first roll from their tummy onto their back around 2-4 months. Sometimes this is more accidental than intentional! Rolling from back to tummy is more complex and usually occurs by six months. Babies who don’t like tummy time might be extra motivated to get onto their back, while heavier babies might need more effort to get from back to tummy. Some babies delight in rolling and become mobile using it. Others do it a couple of times and ignore it while they move onto forward motion on the tummy, using their elbows to drag their body forward. Sitting becomes a goal for other babies who work on pushing their body upright using their arms. Sometimes these babies will go on to “bum shuffle” before crawling on hands and knees later (they might even walk before doing so!)
Babies who spend the majority of their day immobilised in various infant equipment lack opportunity to practice lifting and rolling their bodies. Sometimes they are referred to as “Container Babies”or “Bucket Babies”. All babies need to be on a safe, flat surface during calm wake times to develop this important skills. Feed, Play, Feed, Sleep is how breastfed babies tend to spend their days.
The difference between Passive (being sat in position) and Active (moving from lying to sitting) sitting.
Parents enjoy balancing their baby on a floor, sofa or bed to play in a supervised seated position, perhaps supported by pillows, cushions etc. This can be fun but babies need to learn how to move from lying to sitting by themselves. The muscles used in crawling, standing and walking need to be developed by learning to sit up independently, which takes practice. During this stage, avoid using baby seats except at meal times for babies older than six months. Allow your baby to work that core!
A Global Perspective
Around the world babies are born and you would imagine they all follow the same basic blueprint. However, cultural practices and lifestyles can mean these developmental milestones are reached differently but still typically. This means that we cannot be too focused on timelines without the context of of how and where babies live.
For example, in the 1970s babies in Kenya were observed by Charles Super, a developmental psychologist, to sit, stand and walk earlier than those in the Western world. However they were later to lift their heads, roll and crawl. Super also observed that these babies spent significant periods of the day being carried on their mother’s back while she worked. He suspected that the babies developed through the constant movement exercising their bodies. In this instance, babywearing replaced what we call “Tummy Time” but did not have a negative impact on motor development. A mothers back is the safest place for a baby who might crawl into a fire pit!
Parents can control their baby’s environment and freedom of movement. But it seems that reaching milestones differently is not an issue for neurologically-typical infants who all seem to arrive at their destination whichever pathway they take.
