Babies who never crawl...

[SummerSevern]

For those of you who say that your children 'never crawled', what does that actually mean? I mean, does the child get to 18 still not being able to crawl? How does it work? When do they learn?
DD is hypermobile: bum shuffled at 14mo, walked at 17mo. She's currently frustrated because she can't crawl up the ladder at soft play like her friends, which is what got me wondering.

My DS also mildly hyper-mobile, bum shuffled at 8 months and walked at 11 months he did learn to crawl but not until after he could walk.

Generally, people can crawl as adults, unless there is a disability of some kind which prevents them. However, most of us don't crawl very often just because we can. You can learn all sorts of motor skills at any age (and walking and crawling are learned skills in the same way that riding a bike or skateboarding are).

When people say 'never crawled' in terms of infant development, they tend to mean that their children didn't go through a developmental period where their main method of moving around was crawling (and which fell between sitting and walking).

Don't worry about your DD too much. Her hyper mobility is probably making the soft play ladder a tougher proposition than it is for her friends. She may well develop her own ways of getting up it with more experience. How old is she?

When I say that my mildly HM DD "never crawled" I mean as in she went from sitting and rolling to trying to pull herself up on the furniture at about 9 months. She was walking unaided by 11 months, but just never went through the phase that most of my friends kids had where crawling was their main method of getting around. She was able to crawl and climb if needed as a toddler, but never relied on it to get about, preferring to be on her bum or her feet.

DD just went from sitting to walking at 12 months. No bum shuffling, no crawling, no commando rolling before walking. She did learn to crawl a few months after she learnt to walk. I think this is what most people mean when they say their child never crawled.

My DD went from bum shuffling to walking at 10 months, but at that stage she still could not sit up or pull herself up. Now that she is 3,5yo she can do all these things, but is a bit behind with other things, e.g. stairs.

Ds1 learnt to crawl at 18mo. He'd been walking since 12mo and to a large extent that negated his need to learn. He climbed up ladders using his hands and feet, rather than knees but he's not hypermobile so maybe that helped.

When I say that two of them never crawled, I mean that they went straight from bottom shuffling to walking. I expect they can probably crawl by now if asked (aged 12 and 10) but they never used crawling to get around.

One of the two is hypermobile.

Ds 19 went from dragging himself around by his elbows to walking 10 months. He never got up on all 4s to crawl. He could crawl when he was older if he needed to. He is not hypermobile but has dyslexic problems. He is not bad at sports and has a very strong breaststroke .

DD didn't crawl until a couple of months ago - she's 28m. Walked at 18m, with a pretty effective bum shuffle for a few months before that. Very rarely crawls though- she did this evening, sort of. More a dragging of bent legs behind her she looked pleased with her efforts!

Does your DD have physio? DS is hypermobile. Bum shuffled at 15 months and walked just after 2nd birthday.
His physio gave us specific exercises to get him crawling, even though he could move by bum shuffling as she said its an important stage of development for developing upper body strength etc.

My DNephew bum shuffled then walked. He has hyper-mobile joints and was late walking (after age 2). He took some time to figure out things like your soft-play ladder. He got the idea in time, and your DD will too.

I guess it's a co-ordination thing that some DCs pick-up earlier than others. Encourage her to keep trying!