
One of the things I’ve notice about being a parent of a child with Down’s Syndrome (ours is 3 year old) is that we are almost all uniformly stressed about them not crawling, not walking or not doing whatever it is they should be doing.
Try not to worry – they will get there in their own good time! Ours is 3 and didn’t sit unassisted until he was 15 months old and now walks everywhere including a 25 minute trip to nursery. He’ll walk for 2 hours around the zoo and we only use the buggy if he’s just woken from a nap and we have to rush off somewhere.
I have written up a very quick higgledy piggledy list (sorry no photos for now) for encouraging your child with down’s syndrome to crawl. The important thing is to try and not see it as therapy (or you will go completely loopy over time) but to see it as ways you can adjust play to help them that little bit more.
The main aims to encourage your child with down’s syndrome to crawl are to strengthen muscles, improve co-ordination, to get a sense of balance and to not to be afraid of being moved in any direction! Unless the vestibular system (in the ears) is stimulated appropriately children can feel very wary and unstable generally. Therefore it’s really important to move them in all possible directions with and without warning. Obviously start slowly and build up if they are concerned. The rule is ‘whatever they find hard, do more of it!’ I am a firm believer of doing this through play so I’ve tried to come up with as much as possible that can just be integrated in to your normal playing day.
Some of these exercises may seem irrelevant but I promise they will all help. DON’T feel guilty if you don’t do them all, they are just ideas. This list is not complete – I’m not sure that it would ever be!
Also while I think about it, do get them to handle as many different textures as possible – get a ‘treasure basket’ together with all sorts of household things in for them to fiddle with e.g. bath plug on a short chain, clothes peg, sponge, fabrics, some thick bark, etc etc. This will also help with touching different foods and not being afraid to crawl on different surfaces.
The important thing is to have fun! So – have a read through – have a go and then move on to the ones your little one can’t do yet while continuing on with the ones they can! It’s really important to help them to maintain their strength, so just keep at it through play and even better: accompany with singing and generally acting the fool and soon it will all just happen naturally and won’t feel like therapy! Encouraging your child with Down’s Syndrome to crawl is just as much fun as encouraging your child without Down Syndrome to crawl!
I personally try to discourage ‘bum shuffling’ because the hips are rotated outwards which is the opposite of what they need for walking. So, the lateral hip rotators end up quite short comparatively, which then need to be stretched and the medial rotators strengthened in order to get the leg in neutral if you like and ready for walking. I personally prefer to try and push through this tendency as quickly as possible and crawling has several developmental benefits. I have seen great results with Happy Straps but they are so expensive! They do however stop your little one doing the splits at every opportunity and discourage bum shuffling without you having to nag and keep tucking their leg in so they tip on to all fours.
Right….
To Encourage Crawling
1. Lots of swinging on swings in the park! Forwards, backwards, side to side tilts and also gently twist the swing round and round and then let it spin back round (control the speed that’s appropriate for your little one). Count them in 1,2,3 or ‘ready, steady, go’ to help them anticipate…
2. Repeat on those big round blue net swings that they can lie down on – on their front and their back. Swing forwards and backwards and side to side.
3. Come down slides upside down, on front, on back, right way round, slowly, quickly, stop and start etc.
4. Sit on the horse at the park and put them in a back seat so they have to lean forward more to hold on to the back of the seat in front of them – this will encourage more weight bearing through the arms and hands.
5. Come down slides on their tummies and encourage them to ‘wheelbarrow’ off the end – good for sensory input in to the hands (rough and possibly wet surface) as well as strengthening.
6. In soft play centres or in the summer on grassy slopes in the park – roll down any slopes you can find.
Carry them round the soft play centres if you need to but expose them to as much of it as you can because it will come in good use now and later and is brilliant for sensory input and challenging situations/environments. You’d be amazed at what you can get them to do:
• Grabbing the netting at the sides to strengthen their hands
• Learning about colours
• Sit them on top of all the balls and ‘swish’ them around in all directions
• Get them used to being lifted up ‘stairs’ and steps – just bump them up from behind and force them to weight bear on their hands as they land on each step and then reach up as they anticipate the next one
• Sitting while leaning on one hand and then reach across the body to that same side to get a ball and then throw it (repeat on the other side)
• Pop them in to one end of a tunnel and encourage them to try and move through it themselves by begging, bribing, singing, using extra strong magnets (!) to get them through
• Help them over any humps or slopes that have those little bars across – place their knees against the soft bar to give them something to push against as you help them forwards.
7. Sing Incey Wincey spider in front of a mirrors – both of you kneeling and then move in to high kneeling as Incey Wincey climbs up the spout, get both of your hands to reach up etc and then drop back to low kneeling. You can also practice your makaton here, blowing raspberries, funny faces, pointing to ‘me and you’, identifying parts of the head/body – all good for speech development and cognitive understanding!
8. Hold your child balancing in the sitting position in one of your hands (yes I know) but have your other hand ready in front of their chest to support them as necessary.
9. Lie them down and hold their legs straight and together while encouraging them to sit up, forcing them to use their abdominals. Let them hold on to your fingers if needs be.
10. Sit down with your legs straight out in front of you and together. Place your child on their tummy across the top of your thighs and help them to roll up and down along the length of your legs.
11. Have your child sit on your outstretched legs with their feet on the floor and one hand on their low back/ bottom and one on their chest – gently push them forwards and up to encourage some weight-bearing on their feet and then back to sitting again.
12. Roll them up in a blanket (head out obviously!), count to 3 and then pull the edge of the blanket to unroll them – pick the speed that suits your child best!
13. Encourage and help your child to roll back and forth across the floor in both directions. I always tuck their arms down by their sides to protect their little elbows from being stressed.
14. Get your child to go on to all fours on a blanket and then move the blanket to pull them forwards to encourage a desire for movement towards something they enjoy (toy / snack etc).
15. Place your child’s favourite toys or snacks at a level that encourages/forces them to be in a high kneeling position as much as possible. E.g. one of the lower stairs, sofa, low coffee table etc
16. Use your stairs! Place your child sitting sideways to the bottom step and encourage them to turn and crawl up them using bait, bribery or whatever you can think of! Sparkly necklaces from the pound shop, tissues, food, noisy toys…one step at a time but they’ll be doing them all soon enough!
17. Lie them on a gym ball and roll across the top of it both to the left and to the right
18. Using a gym ball – roll backwards and forwards on it (supported) while lying on tummy – until hands touch the floor one way and feet touch the floor the other.
19. Using the gym ball – lie them on their tummy with you at their feet. Roll them forwards so that their hands reach the floor and then gently keep rolling the ball to encourage them to walk away from the ball on their hands until they are off it completely.
20. Lie child on their back and get them to touch one hand to their opposite knee (bend leg first!) – first one side then the other. Diagonal work like this is important for neurological patterning and brain development.
21. Lie child on their back and help them to kiss each knee (support their neck).
22. Wheelbarrow (their hands on the floor and you support their body up and straight as if to help them walk on their hands).
23. While they are on all fours, straighten out one arm or leg at a time and then progress on to one arm and opposite leg and hold for as long as you can up to 10 seconds. Repeat on both sides.
24. Playing ‘across the midline’ – e.g. toys to one side and reaching across with the opposite hand.
25. You sit on the floor cross-legged and get your child to sit in your lap with their hips and knees bent to 90 degrees. Hold their hands and gently force them forwards and up so that they move in towards standing, then get them to sit again. A good song for this is ‘the grand old duke of york’! There’s also a great 2nd verse – he marched them to the left, he marched to the right, he marched them all the way around /upside down, oh what a silly sight (tickle tickle tickle)!
26. Swimming!
Books you might find interesting:
Gross Motor Skills in Children with Down’s Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals (Topics in Down Syndrome) [Paperback]
Gross Motor Skills in Children With Down’s Syndrome
Fine Motor Skills for Children with Down Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals (Topics in Down Syndrome) [Paperback]
Fine Motor Skills in Children With Down’s Syndrome
You may also like to see other Health including:
Potty Training A Child With Zero Interest
Sensory Processing Disorder: Sensation Seeking & Antisocial Behaviour
Get The Most Out Of Therapy For Children over on written by me over on Jump! Parents
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Yes I have and such a wonderful resource that I wholeheartedly support!
Thank you so much too for your kind comments x
Such a wonderfully useful post for all parents. Have you read my friend Hayley’s great blog-Downs Side Up: http://www.downssideup.com/. Thanks for linking x