well, i haven't gotten ten, but today as i was picking up milo from the nursery at mops, they were commenting on how strong milo is, and i jokingly replied that we figure he'll be walking before he crawls at the rate he's going; to which i got: "oh, you don't want to skip that step! crawling is so important; they've linked it to reading, you know. if he doesn't crawl first, he'll have trouble with reading."
i didn't know how to respond. some dear friends have warned me that "wiser" (::ahem:: by which i mean "older") generations had been taught this, but that it's not true. i decided to google it, and couldn't really find any news articles covering the topic, though plenty of blog postings and chat-forums on the subject.
this was the one i liked the most, maybe because so many people "prove" it wrong, who knows. but either way, it's not worth me worrying about. milo isn't even rolling over yet - though he's certainly started trying. (i guess those one or two times it happened a few months ago were flukes, because he certainly hasn't really figured it out again since.) he can get to his side, and he'll lift up his rear and and back off the ground (or his bed, or whatever he's on - luckily, though, he hasn't yet tried it on the changing table, but i won't give him the opportunity to find out on his own), but he hasn't figured out that if he leans to the side while he does this that he'll roll.
so anyhow, if he's not even really rolling yet, and definitely not crawling or walking, well, then what's to worry about? who knows if he'll actually walk before he crawls. and let's say he does, and let's pretend that in milo's case, these studies are correct, and he does have difficulty reading. well then, we'll deal with it. it's not like he'd be the first child to have such a difficulty. it's not like it causes blindness. or something even worse than that. sheesh.
when the lady told me this, (and she was indeed of the "wiser" generation) i simply nodded my head back inquisitively and said, "huh, that's interesting." but while i didn't really find it interesting, i didn't feel the need to correct her or scold her or defend myself. she had just graciously been taking good care of my child; i had no desire to burn that bridge.
now in that matter of childcare, i just need someone so i can go to the zumba class on wednesday mornings at 9:30 am.... maybe they'd let me bring him with, put him in the stroller and just push him around while i do their crazy dance work-out? wouldn't that be a sight! :P
Good manners, Zoe!
ReplyDeleteI won't write an entire tirade about the "crawling and reading connection", but I will say that I think it is baloney, as a parent and an educator. Anne walked before she crawled and didn't ever crawl until age 2. She saw physical therapists who said the reading/crawling thing was false and doctors who said it was true. All I know is that she already knows all of her letters and their sounds at age 3 and can read 15 words. Our take was that Anne's brain (like Milo's) is just too busy with other stuff to be bothered with gross motor skills! If you're lucky he'll be an early talker, which is much better than an early climber.
To summarize: he's fine!!! Don't be like me and obsess and freak out about it :) Trust your mom instincts.
moms are nuts...don't listen to us :)
ReplyDeletethanks ladies!!!! :)
ReplyDelete