A question for the parents

[jessesgirl]

I'm posting this in WD and in parenting. Thanks to all of you so far who have helped me out. I don't know a lot of parents locally so you guys are a gigantic help, no doubt.

Question: Should sitting, crawling, and walking be deliberately encouraged in infants and toddlers? Why or why not?

 

[heart of peace]

What do you mean by "deliberately encouraged?"

 

[Leanna]

In a healthy environment with a normal healthy child, you would have to be deliberate to hold them BACK from those things.

 

[jessesgirl]

Ms. Dahl: Should it be something you encourage your child to do as the next progression in their development or should you just leave it to your child to learn these things on his/her own?

Leanna, that was where my thoughts were headed, too. I know with Justin, we basically had to tie his hands to the floor to keep him from walking (not literally, but you know what I mean ).

 

[stacii]

Well, My son did this weird army crawl thing one day randomly without enouragment, and it looked uncomfortable, so we tried to "teach" him how to actually crawl for a few days. Of course he would have none of it and looked at us like we were lunatics as we crawled around on the floor in front of him. Then, ta-da, like, three weeks later he came crawling over to my husband who was sitting on the floor eating ice cream much to our shock!

Now, he's 13 months and once again is just content with where he is. He refuses to take a step on his own, even though he cruises along the furniture (also learned randomly by himself one day). I've tried to "encourage" him but to no avail, of course.

IN SUMMARY (Sorry, I know this post was much longer than necessary with my own stories about my kid...) I don't think there is anything you can do anyway to teach or encourage them even if you wanted to. I think they healthy children who are developing normally are going to learn to do things as they are ready. So I'm not against encouraging and I don't know that it will do anything bad necessarily, but I also don't know how much of a difference it makes...

 

[GolfingMom]

Sitting: I would prop them up so I guess encouraged?
crawling: I gave both tummy time so I guess I encouraged it...OS never crawled. Hated being on his tummy (still does actually) and went straight to walking...Second crawled...backwards for a very short time and then went to walking. We just let them do what they want with crawling.
Walking: We did play games with them like 'come here...walk to mama' type of games so I guess encouraged again.


I don't know

 

[jessesgirl]

ROFL GM...so your answer is...I don't know??? (I still heart you...you silly girl).

 

[lucypevensie]

I guess, encourage these things within reason. If the kid is 4 months old and you're trying to teach him how to walk that's unreasonable. If the kid is 12 months and looks interested in walking then what's the harm in encouraging him to try?

 

[Robinsegg]

I guess I see this kinda weirdly: My approach is to play games that give the child the idea of what the next step might be without expecting results, then to encourage the next step when he/she seems interested in trying it out.

Rachel

 

[Birbitt]

I didn't deliberately encourage my children to do these things, but like GM said My boys were always given plenty of tummy time which eventually led to crawling, I would sit them up on my lap and when older I would sit them up with pillows eventually they learned to sit up. I didn't really do much to encourage walking...I would stand them on their feet and hold their hands but that's about it..they pretty much figured that out on their own.

 

[visionary]

Play with your child.. they will get into it.

 

[-~Truth_N_Trust~-]

we reasonably encourage.

 

[stacii]

I guess I didn't consider tummy time and propping them up to help them sit as "encouragement" so I guess I did encourage my son to an extent. I don't know...my 13 month old son is not interested at all in walking and I think that no matter what I tell myself, that it actually is starting to bother me....his cousins walked soo much sooner.