I know, Liv is not one of our babies, but I have witnessed a similar process in all of our Infant South babies. There is lots of information out there about how to help babies develop their gross motor skills, but I have learned that they can learn how to move on their own if we just give them the space to figure it out. First, Liv experimented with ways to move until she could roll easily from back to front and front to back. Next, she found ways to move her body to let her crawl.
One of the things that I think is so cool about babies figuring out how to move is that they do it in all different ways.
Adi army crawls.
Edith learned how to crawl by moving from a sitting position to leaning far forward on her hands.
Anais rolls and rolls to access anything she sees. She is developing so much coordination to help her start moving forward.
It took me some time to see that babies are capable of moving independently just as preschoolers are, though in different ways. I used to work in a classroom of 3-5 year olds, and the monkey bars on the playground were very enticing to those children at recess. When I first started working there, I would get requests from some of the children to help hold them up as they would move their hands from one bar to the next. I thought it would make them happy, so I would yield to their requests. Then the teacher I worked with explained that she doesn't help them across the monkey bars because it doesn't help them learn how to do it on their own and I would just end up holding them up there every recess. That made so much sense! So I stopped assisting them and started encouraging them if they expressed interest. Soon the children were climbing up, holding on to the first bar as long as they could, and finally dropping down when they couldn't hold on any longer. But that helped them gain the strength and confidence required for them to move on to the next bar and the next, until they could do it all by themselves.
Why do we so often want to help babies and young children move in new ways before they can do it independently? I learned not to do it with preschoolers, so why did I start helping our infants stand up before they were ready? I know that it feels exciting to see them develop so quickly, and they usually seem really happy and excited when someone helps them move in new ways too. It feels like they're making so much progress, and that feels good. Maybe we worry that they won't be able to do it themselves if we don't help them, but we don't show babies how to roll and they figure it out, so why do we help babies walk? Sometimes people help out of convenience, such as using a seat to prop a baby when our hands are otherwise busy. And lastly, it's really hard to watch a baby struggle when trying to do something they haven't quite figured out how to do yet. But as educator Magda Gerber said, “Wait as long as you can stand it. And then a few moments more.”
We must have an opportunity to struggle in order to learn how to do something, whether rock climbing, moving across the monkey bars, or crawling forward. The struggle is where the learning happens. My job as a teacher is to support learning in this way. If I see a baby who is struggling and is visibly upset, then I tell her, "I see that you've been working really hard and are getting upset, so I'm going to pick you up now." Then I can hold her and give her some comfort until she is ready to do something else or try again. But a little frustration is fine!
Here Nate was struggling to move forward, and now he has figured out how to crawl!
The struggle really is worthwhile. It will lead to learning and will help develop confident, independent children.
With care,
Amara (with Christina, Dilcia, and Susie)
