Crawling: A New View of the World

This is my grand daughter Karllisse. As you can see, she is very happy. Why so? Because a new world opens up for her as she can move independently. She can crawl on lengths. Since she can move on her own, she begins to detach from her Mom and or her caregiver. Now she has ideas on what she has to do in moving around the house, on which direction to go whether near the living room or to the direction of the bedroom. She has a new view of the world around her. But this poses problems for my daughter Krizelle. They now have conflicts of interests. And I am sure you know why.

But Karllisse' crawling skills points to something relevant. You know why? It is because her new acquired motor skill is related to milestone in her cognitive development. Being able to move and provided the opportunity to exercise it, new possibilities of exploration and construction of knowledge about the world opens up for her. According to Bushnell and Boudreau (1993) the more efficiently the infant can move, the more she can learn.

As research has proven, especially that of Kermoian and Campos (1988) the infant who can move around on their own were cognitively more advanced than those who could not.

Bearing this in mind, I hope that those mothers around who have infants, would also give opportunities to their own babies to let them move around and crawl in lengths. Do provide them an opportunity to have a new view of the world. Just like my Karllisse. And surely they will grow up to be problem solvers and creative thinkers in the future.