My partner once read an article which said that children who never learn to crawl have a tendency to be clumsier later in life and lack co-ordination. This resonated with us somewhat- Ricky is now three and never learned to crawl. Well, he could do the “army crawl”, but never really got up on all fours. He didn’t do that “bum shuffle” that a lot of kids do either. He started walking at a perfectly normal age- a week shy of his first birthday- and developmentally is perfectly normal.
He is definitely a bit of a clutz though! When he’s running, he sometimes looks like Phoebe in that episode of Friends where she and Rachel go jogging together! He also has a tendency even now to fall quite a lot when running, mainly if he isn’t paying attention or isn’t looking where he’s going.
I’m sure this is perfectly normal for kids of his age, and will disappear as he gets older, but I wonder if he’ll always be a bit clumsy.
Bizarrely, if you throw a rugby ball at him, he can catch it and throw it back to you like a pro, and he can run with the ball very well. I think that Ian’s hopes of having fathered the second row for Ireland’s rugby team twenty years from now are still alive and well!
Coping with Chaos 
Hi, I read your first few lines in the “family” tag with interest, expecting this to be about literacy! One difficulty sometimes experienced by children who have spent a lot of time in walkers (those chairs with wheels that infants scoot around in) and have thereby missed the crawling stage sometimes entirely, is with literacy.
I don’t share this to depress you, but so that at this early stage, being aware that it could be a possible problem, you have the opportunity to take some preventative measures. I have known parents of children with these difficulties to involve the child in gymnastics, and see a marked improvement in the child’s ability to comprehend the work set for them.
I am not a specialist in any early child development field, but from what I have read, it seems the development of co-ordination and gross motor skills helps those brain pathways that were not activated by the crawling process.
Of course, another enormous help toward loving learning and word play, is to read, read read to your little one, but I’m sure you know that already 🙂
I have been coaching a boy for a couple of years in both soccer (our world) and basketball. He is always falling down. His body is trying to go too fast for his own good, now that I get him to slow down and stay in control things are so much better.
This kid, at home, ends up with bruises everywhere and ends up with a cast on somewhere every six months.
Just get him to run at 80% speed instead of 180.
Beyond Blue Stockings- many thanks for your response! What you wrote is fascinating, I must do more research. We didn’t ever use a walker with either of our children because it was always drummed into us at parentcraft classes that they could cause problems. My younger son has learned to crawl with no problems at all. I guess they are all different! 🙂 Ricky loves to read and we work on it a lot. He does know most of the alphabet now, and I guess only time will tell if he has any problems with literacy. Thank you for giving me food for thought!
Morethananelectrician- you’re quite right. 80% speed would definitely suit me better as well. Normally he goes haring off when I have one armful of Robbie and another armful of school bags/groceries/carkeys, so if he slowed down it would be great, lol!
Oh, and about the gymnastics- he’s starting a class next Tuesday! I meant to post that in my comment but forgot. I hope it will help him, too! 🙂
hey girl….as for what I have learned as long as he can do movements that require the crossing of the midline he will be fine. Gymnastics are wonderful, and will give him tons of practice as crossing the midline. 🙂
well done.