Please or to access all these features

Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Babies not crawling linked to dyslexia????

59 replies

Tallysmum · 07/03/2007 15:17

DD is 7 1/2 months old and showing no interest in crawling. She is keen to stand at all opportunites and we think she may go straight to walking. I've heard there could be some physical development impacts for babies who don't crawl - including potential dyslexia. Can anyone shed any light on this? Should I be doing everything I can to encourage more tummy time? She really doesn't like it....

OP posts:
Ophuchi · 05/01/2012 08:50

Sorry, that's not helpful. Kids don't usually read at 2ish (even if a lot do on mumsnet) and those who don't are as unlikely to be dyslexic as the next child, just to be clear.

bruffin · 05/01/2012 08:53

This is a zombie thread 5 years old
FWIW DS never crawled properly and is dyslexic.

Ophuchi · 05/01/2012 08:55

Oh sorry, didn't notice the date. I do like the term 'zombie thread' though :)

startail · 05/01/2012 08:57

DD1 and me didn't crawl and are dyslexic. DD1 and my DSIS were expert crawlers and aren't.
DD1 doesn't have dyspraxia, she's not very sporty, but she could climb before she could walk! Learn't to ride a bike and do very fine art and craft work. It just goes to pieces if you ask her to write anything.

As for tummy time, DD2 screamed if you put her on her front, so I never bothered with DD2.

hazeyjane · 05/01/2012 09:03

Ds has developmental delay, and his physio and ot have said that because he doesn't crawl, and has other delays, it is important to encourage and help develop his fine motor skills, as the movements involved with crawling are linked to the development of these. However i think that this is important for him, because of his general delay.

By the way, BabyBase, the only thing i can find on facebook with your name, is a nursery wholesalers? I wonder if they sell a range of products encouraging tummy time!

DeWe · 05/01/2012 09:38

7 months is well under the average to crawl so don't worry... probably for about 6 months!

However I have heard the link between dyslexia and not crawling, I think it's quite old research, it's certainly at least 15, and I have a feeling dm had heard it when we were little, so it may be around 40years old. I don't know if it's been confirmed or rejected in that time at all.

There is some link between ambidexterity and dyslexia. And I think the ambidexterity can also go with not crawling, so it may be two separate things both link to the same thing rather than them actually being directly connected if that makes sense.

rabbitstew · 05/01/2012 10:44

I was a bottom shuffler, used both hands for all tasks, including writing, until I was well over 6, when I decided to start using my right hand for everything... and could read fluently at 3, have always been extremely well co-ordinated, have neat handwriting, was always good at sport and gymnastics. Of course I can crawl if I want to... I obviously didn't want to when I was a baby - probably because I am very hypermobile. In other words, there may well have been physical reasons for not choosing to crawl to get around, but there most certainly weren't long term neurological or physical reasons.

Ds2 was late-ish crawling (10 months) and walking (17 months) but is likewise advanced now with his gross motor skills, extremely advanced with fine motor skills and motor planning, and could read at age 3. Like me, he is hypermobile and loves to w-sit. Ds1 has slightly low muscle tone, is extremely hypermobile and needed to be taught not just how to crawl but how to get from lying to sitting, sitting to standing, climb stairs, walk, etc, etc, etc... He could read at age 3, was an early writer (can't draw for toffee, but could form letters correctly when only 2 or 3 - he's good with symbols, just not good with pictures...), is possibly slightly hyperlexic (was happily reading, eg, Roald Dahl books to himself at 3), can play the piano, ride a bike, swim... he does not have natural motor planning skills, however - needs to be taught fairly simple physical tasks and relies on his phenomenal memory and lack of any problem with balance, etc, to learn how to do things that other children could work out in seconds without realising they had to think about it at all. He is phenomenally good with numbers. Basically, what is supposedly instinctive, he needed to be given active teaching to learn, but what is supposed to need active tuition (eg reading, writing, arithmetic) he has a natural instinct for. Whilst he is highly verbal and imaginative, he is also far less strategic than his brother - he doesn't really do thinking ahead, so dislikes board games. Maybe an issue with "higher order" thinking? Or is it called executive functioning, or something???? But only certain aspects of it, since he has a brilliant short, medium and long-term memory...

Observing my children and how they are developing, I have decided to take so-called experts views on, eg, crawling, with an enormous pinch of salt. Of course not crawling can indicate a peculiarity in development that can mean something long-term, but WHAT that actually means is not predictable, nor is it preventable even if it can be ameliorated. Yes, if your child doesn't seem to have found any means of moving around by, say, a year old, teaching it to crawl is possible. Sticking the poor mite on its stomach for extended periods of time from an early age and leaving it to cry piteously because some interfering idiot says it is good for it and you MUST do it every day for at least a few minutes regardless of the child's reaction will NOT ensure it learns to crawl, or even develop the muscles it needs to do it if it has low muscle tone and a motor planning problem - more effective intervention is needed, rather than needless cruelty at an age when the baby is too young to understand why you are torturing it in that way... in my experience...

mumeeee · 05/01/2012 10:58

DD1 didn't crawl. She was a bum shuffler and didn't walk until she was 21 months. But she's neither Dyslexic or Dayspraxic. She did well at school and at university. DD3 did crawl ( she was queue fast) and she was walking at 15 months. She is Dyspraxic

rabbitstew · 05/01/2012 11:00

(Admittedly a bit of a biased view from me in the last paragraph... in principle I agree that babies need experience of being on their stomachs, but then most babies that have nothing wrong with them get themselves on their stomachs without the need for much assistance... my experience with ds1 was that I spent far too much time following advice to put my child on his stomach when he would merely scream hysterically then collapse exhausted with his nose pressed into the carpet, and far too much time putting his toys out of reach so that he banged his hands on the floor in fury because he genuinely couldn't reach them, and far too much time sitting around at Tumble Tots watching other children move, because I'd been advised to take him, to "encourage him"... and not enough time telling the people who were advising me to do these things that they were wasting my time and distressing my baby, because he was NOT going to get moving that way. It was never lack of opportunity that stopped him from moving, it was lack of ability and lack of effective intervention from people who ought to have been more helpful. All I wanted was advice from a physiotherapist - making her comment, "It's a shame I didn't see him sooner" even more maddening when I finally got what I wanted).

New posts on this thread. Refresh page