How do you encourage babies to stand/walk earlier

[Korrale4kq]

Well done PokerCub.
The push walker was the best thing we ever got for James when he was little. He used to love pushing that thing.

I am not convinced about the crawling thing either. James did crawl At 5 months for about a month, before he decided cruising was better. But he was never a great crawler.
Even  if a child does not crawl there is no reason why they can't crawl after they walk. We have lots of fun having crawling races.

This was James walking at 6 months.
http://youtu.be/-d35wRN61Bg

And this was him at 8 months.
http://youtu.be/jBMXRE0cR2M

[PokerDad]

Maybe my favorite thing about this BrillKids forum are the norms around here.

For instance, the other day I took Cub out for his first social. we went to the library to read and play games in a baby group followed by half an hour of playtime with all the kids. Cub was turning heads. One mother of an 8th month old (that just sits and can't crawl yet) started telling her baby "you can learn a thing or two from him" - another was cracking a joke with me that her child couldn't throw saying "well baseball not's your thing, maybe you can play soccer" (I get that it was a joke, but seriously, if my wife heard me say something like that she'd wring my neck). In other words, we go out in the everyday world (even to the pediatrician) and everyone is shocked, like Cub is some sort of freak...

I post here and I get some encouragement and then even more encouragement when everyone else says "me too". I LOVE that. Around here you can have conversations about so many things without people thinking you're nuts...

anyway, saying all this to thank everyone for the encouragement!

EDIT: to answer some questions, the standing up work began when Cub was a week old. He'd get really upset and extend his legs, so I stood him up for a few seconds each time. When he was two months old, he wanted to stand up on his own without being upset. We were building up to it from the beginning. From there it's just been exposure; he'd play at his stand up toy for hours a day. Eventually he got to crawling and cruising (seemingly the same day really) so now he does both quite well. He now crawls to his push toy, pulls himself up, and then walks it across the room as seen the video.
Nee, we're doing some of the Fowler stuff but not all. The only reason is that I'm too disorganized or lazy or whatever other excuse I can convince myself of. BUT, having read the book and watched the video, some of that stuff has worked its way into the day to day routine. For example, I had bought him a bunch of plastic animals at the dollar store, then over Christmas I saw that Target was selling similar animals but larger - so I bought some animals he didn't have and some that he did. Now, several times a day I show him "little lion.... and BIG lion... roooooaaarrr". But, in/out, on/off (of), behind/in front, etc I haven't done as much work with.... and he's at the age now where I need to really hammer those in.

[Jenene]

I think the issue with crawling/creeping is that it is important but it is not the amount of time spent crawling but how well organized the crawl/creep is.  So a perfectly 'normal' or what we call neuro-typical child may only spend a few weeks crawling but have a perfectly co-ordinated cross crawl and be very ready to continue on to the next level of development.  A child with delays however may never develop the cross crawl which is important for brain development and future learning despite months of practice.  I guess our problem (or a country's doctors)  is how to assess children to see which ones have a co-ordinated crawl and which don't and MAY have difficulties later. 

I have both types of children.  2 NT children who spent a month or so at most crawling and went on to be relatively early walkers, readers, etc.. I didn't do anything special to encourage them to walk but I also didn't discourage them from walking.  Just provided opportunities as they were ready (Vygotsky's zone of proximal development in practice).  And even now that they Are older if they get down on the floor to creep/crawl they have a perfectly co-ordinated pattern.  This is supposed to be true for the rest of your life unless you experience a brain injury or trauma of some description.

But I also have a child with brain damage and autistic behaviors and there is a branch of núero development that does focus on all the reflexes that they missed/couldn't do and provides time and exercises to readdress them.  Creeping and crawling are BIG on this list but definitely not the only things.  And actually Doman's program when first developed for brain injured children had a large emphasis on creeping/crawling as well.  I plan to start a program like this for my daughter this year so shall see if it helps her at all.

For an interesting book that does touch on this You can try Norman Doidge's The Brain That Changes Itself.  Not just about crawling but it does touch on that.  But very interesting about the plasticity of the brain and its ability to heal.  Also supports the idea that we all hold onto here in that the brain develops and grows depending on how much and what it is fed.  Very interesting book.

Also of interest in this creeping/crawling debate is that it has been shown (anecdotally at least) that crawling later in life after an injury (such as a stroke) or trauma (emotional or physical) can result in new neural pathways being laid and healing/recovery happening.  There is an example in the above mentioned book.

[Jenene]

I would also say that I have no regrets re the crawling/walking of my 2 NT children but if I had to do it over again I would not have encouraged my daughter with disabilities to try to walk.  I would definitely have encouraged her to spend more time crawling as she never even came close to a co-ordinated crawl (and she was 3 when she walked independently for more than a couple of steps).

Brain gym would be a very well recognized program that focuses on the homo and cross crawl pattern.  I imagine that they would have links to research supporting their ideas.

[Skylark]

I am late on discussion, but I had to chime in    I tend to agree with PokerDad on walking/crawling issue...

My older girl never crawled, she independently walked at 8 months, and would climb stairs, go for real walks with us at that age. She was cruising very well before that, and yes she loved her stand up/push walker when she was younger. But she never crawled. I do not think it influenced her development, as she is pretty advanced in all areas ( well average according to BK standards, but according to the mainstream society... you get the picture!)

But for whatever it is worth -- we did engage her a lot in physical climbing activities since she was about 7-8 months old. We got a real home gym for her, with rope ladder, rope, trapeze, gymnastic rings, ladder, gladiator's net and brachiation ladder. And by the time she was 18 months, she was able to do all kind of exercises there. Since a lot of the exercises incorporate cross-pattern movements, may be she compensated her lack of crawling with these... Just a thought.

[TeachingMyToddlers]

@ PokerDad- I don't know how Fowler does it but around this age or perhaps a little older, I held my kids up in the bathroom mirror and let them explore the light switch while I explained "On!!!! Off!!!! Yay!" Seeing themselves in the mirror when the light went in was just another bonus because of course it can be done in any room. Now that I think back, may I flipped the switch until they were old enough to do it themselves.

For the rest, we just watched a YouTube clip by Busy Beavers called "In, On, Under."

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/hx8i-Wq_jtc&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/hx8i-Wq_jtc&rel=1</a>

And "Where's the Monkey" accomplishes the same as well. If you watch it once or twice, you can just steal the tune and sing it with your own toy prop.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/idJYhjGyWTU&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/idJYhjGyWTU&rel=1</a>

And regarding standing/walking, I walked at 8 or 9 months and just expected my kids to do the same. And they did.

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