For Kids Who Don't Crawl

Are you working with your little one to help them master the art of crawling?  Here are some ideas to try.

• Crawling up stairs.  Most kids lead all the time with one foot.  So help your child crawl up stairs leading with her other foot too. 
• Climb up onto furniture.  
• Kneel on the floor and let your child use your knee as a step if he isn't tall enough to climb up by himself.
• Place one of the sofa cushions on the floor in front of the sofa and have the child crawl up onto it and then crawl up onto the sofa (where the cushion was), and then crawl up on the the cushion that is still on the sofa, like he is crawling up stairs.
• If cushions don't come off the sofa, you can have the child crawl up onto a plastic storage box, the kind that slides under a bed or like you put wrapping paper in, that you have placed on the floor in front of the sofa.
• Once again, help the child lead with the right foot sometimes and with the left foot sometimes as they do this.
• Place a couch cushion or under-bed plastic storage box in the center of the floor.  Place toys on the cushion or box where the child must get up into all 4's, or pull to kneeling at the cushion or box, in order to reach the toy.
• Sit on the floor and use your legs as obstacles the child must crawl over to get a toy he wants.
• If the child can crawl but doesn't do it on his own, try playing train - you crawl behind the child holding his ankles, make train sounds, and crawl together across the room to some pillows you've put on the floor where you can "crash".