7 FUN IDEAS FOR ENCOURAGING CREEPING AND CRAWLING
The previous blog talked about how important creeping and crawling is in a baby’s all-round development and why it’s good to keep crawling long after are up on two feet!
Here are 7 fun ideas to encourage spontaneous, playful creeping and crawling – with no age restrictions!
- Get on down – Join children on the floor to participate and share in their crawling. Kneepads will help ease the strain on adult knees. To encourage eye contact, wait some distance away and encourage crawling towards you for a nose bump or kiss!
- Fun on the Floor – Put games and activities down on the floor (rather than on tables) – it’s impossible to do a puzzle or play with cars without crawling around!
- Tunnel Time – Creeping, crawling and slithering though tunnels is perfect encouragement for crawling. Make your own with cardboard boxes or fabric draped over chairs; grown ups use your own body on all fours or stand up with wide legs to create tunnels and arches to crawl through,
- Up and Over – Build a mountain of cushions to be crawled over by babies and little ones. Hide yourself on the other side to provide the motivation to come and find you.
- Snakes and Crocodiles – Get down on your tummies to move and creep about like reptiles. With older children you can try putting sticky stars, shapes or sequins on the floor to sweep up with your bellies!
- Crawling Combos – Encourage crawling in lots of different ways and combinations. Try going backwards as well as forwards, (you might have to think first!). Go sideways and different directions. Try crawling really fast and really slow, on hands and knees or hands and feet (bear crawl).
- Animal tails – Tuck bright scarves or fluffy fabric tails into the top of waistbands, and then on all fours, chase each other around the floor to grab those tails!
Remember, children have a biological drive to move. Their bodies and their brains instinctively work together to develop well. That’s why we should never force babies and children to move in certain ways. Rolling over, crawling, cruising and walking are natural processes that babies are driven to do in their own ways, WHEN THEY ARE READY. Our job is to provide the companionship and encouragement to ensure the experience is satisfying and worth doing again and again as they practice and develop their skills, at their own pace. Find these and more ideas for children’s physical development in our book Understanding Physical Development in the Early Years: linking bodies and minds.