ABSTRACT

This chapter explains the motor, intellectual and social benefits children gain through crawling using the cross lateral pattern. This is a key developmental movement skill and needs to be taught / demonstrated accurately. All practitioners should check that they can do this confidently themselves before they observe and teach children to do so. It is an activity that allows more play activities to be accessed and gives a measure of independence. It allows children to practise balancing in a safe position and strengthens limbs, necks and torsos. It ‘sets up a template in the brain’ (Winston 2004) that promotes writing and reading skills as well as visual acuity. Many children will naturally adopt the cross lateral pattern and they can have fun trying it out in different environments e.g. crawling up stairs or later on a climbing frame. But some children don’t crawl in this way. Children who bum shuffle or use a homolateral pattern (hand and knee on the same side going forward) or who do not crawl at all should learn the cross lateral pattern even if making the change is difficult. The pattern is one that needs regular sustained practice if the inherent benefits are to accrue. In the chapter the action is analysed to demonstrate just how important it is and to show what practitioners can do.