Leslie Holmes Cordero, DPT and the other physical therapists on our team often help infants and little ones learn to crawl.  Crawling on hands and knees in a reciprocal pattern is an important piece of development for a child.

Leslie promotes that all kids move through gross motor skills and NOT skip certain skills.  Some parents get excited when their child skips straight to walking and feel like this is such an accomplishment.    

Think about this.  The only time your child will ever have prolonged weight bearing on their hands is through the crawling stage.  There are intrinsic and extrinsic muscles in the hand that need that time to develop and become strong for handwriting and grasping later down the line in development. 

Crawling is also important for core strength.  A child uses various movement strategies and transitions to get in and out of the hands and knees position which all work to improve the core muscles.  The core muscles that are built during this phase will help your child have stability for standing alone and walking independently.  

In short, all gross motor skills build on one another during development and it is important to master each skill in proper order.

Our team consists of 6 licensed physical therapists, rather than assistants or aides.  The ladies have vast experience and special expertise including 3 doctoral practitioners, 2 Neurodevelopmental Treatment (NDT) certified practitioners, 2 Aquatic Therapy & Rehab Institute (ATRI) certified practitioners, 1 Pediatric Clinical Specialist, as well as many other expanded specialities.