Crawling And Grasp

Your baby is 34 weeks old today and there is no slowing her down!  She is probably getting onto all fours and starting to crawl.  Your baby may be a little hesitant at first, but once she realizes what she can do, she’ll spend most of her playtime crawling.  My son started off doing the army crawl, pulling himself forward with his arms, then my daughter would try to teach him how to crawl by getting down on her hands and knees.  My son would watch his big sister intently and smile.  Then one day he briefly got onto his knees.  For a few days he got onto his knees and rocked back and forth and suddenly (well, it seemed like it was sudden), my son moved his knee forward and then moved his opposite hand forward.  He slowly progressed and now he crawls across the living room floor as fast as a freight train!  Older siblings are always great teachers for your baby, as are you. 

You will see your baby’s grasp change as she is now using her whole hand to grab and hold onto objects.  She places her palm on the object and her fingers wrap around the object to pick it up.  These changes in your baby’s grasp may seem insignificant right now, but they all play a part in the bigger picture as they are all necessary steps for your baby to take as she will later learn how to use a pincer grasp, throw a ball, hold and manipulate feeding utensils and well, you get the picture!   

There will continue to be obvious changes in your baby’s motor skills in the coming weeks as your baby is well on her way to turning a year old.  Next week, we will see developments in your baby’s language and communication skills…