Crawling Track

At 7 months old Adam is well within a normal age range for learning to crawl, however he has been up on hands and knees for a couple of months so Dave and I decided to try a little project to help him on his way. We had read about crawling tracks on other blogs and decided to make our own.

I'll say its really very simple to make, but also have to add that Dave did most of the work! I was responsible for the padding, but that's about it. After we assembled the supplies it was finished during the kids afternoon nap, so not more than about 2 hours.

Here's the process:

 

We used 2 random MDF boards because we happened to have them in the basement. Dave made two cuts - the first to get a 14 inch base from the one board, and the other board he cut in half for the sides. I think they were about 50 inches long.
We used six "L" brackets to secure the boards in place.

I am extra cautions about corners/edges and the prominent brackets so I used a fleece blanket on the base and fleece remnants from around the house to add extra padding to those areas. I just secured it with duct tape to limit the number of staples. Then we used an egg crate mattress pad from Walmart (full size, about 11 dollars) with the flat side up to fully pad the track. Dave used the staple gun to secure it to the base and wrapped it up over the top.

Then we added a vinyl table cloth (Walmart about 5 dollars) as the cover. The fleece underside stuck well to the foam so we only had to staple it down on the bottom and outside of the track. No staples on the crawling surfaces.
Here is Adam on his first trial run!

We experimented with propping it up at different angles to find one that gave him enough of a forward weight shift without making him too hesitant to move forward.

It took a few days before he really moved down the track without encouragement and lets be clear it was not using a crawling pattern just yet!
He used a combo of advancing arms or legs and then going to his belly and army crawling.
It did help him start moving forward though and 4 days after we built it we saw
his first real attempts at crawling on the floor!

I refuse to have anything this big in my house that only serves one purpose and as a therapist I like that this can be used for kneeling and pulling to stand when its flat.

Adam seems to like it as well :)

 

Milestones in review...

TUMMY TIME

 

As a pediatric physical therapist both of my children have suffered through ridiculous amounts of tummy time. Adam's tummy time started in the hospital and continues today in the form of lots of time on hands and knees. Here are some pictures of lots of time spent on his tummy and weighbearing through his arms. We were thrilled to see him develop good head control with midline positioning in prone extension. Over time his skills progressed from weight bearing on his forearms to his hands. When he first made the transition we would see his right arm fatigue faster than his left, but like everything he has done so far with some practice he is now able to bear weight symmetrically on both arms.

 

 

 

 

  

Sometimes we just have fun :)

Audrey started to add her own little challenges like piling up her toys on Adam's back

Up on hands at knees at 5 1/2 months old

 

SITTING

 

Adam starting sitting independently one week shy of 5 months.

Here are some pics of his road to get there!

Most of his practice came sitting on the floor with Dave and I, but for pictures the bumbo worked well. Complete with big sister making him work just a little harder!

As he started to sit on his own and reach for toys we used a Boppy pillow behind him while we waited for those nice balance reactions to develop.

All by myself!



At 7 months Adam has symmetrical balance reactions most of the time (slightly less on the right when he's tired). He can reach for toys in any direction and crosses midline with both hands without losing his balance.

Midline sitting posture was a great Christmas present for us!

 

REACHING AND GRASPING

 

As I mentioned earlier Adam begain batting at objects about a week or so before he was 3 months old. Ironically the first time I saw him do it he used his right hand! However, the more he used his hands the more we noticed him having some difficulty coming out of a flexed position on his right side. We began occupational therapy and have worked on opening his hand with his thumb out during reaching and weightbearing, facilitating supination (turning his palm up), reaching with an extended elbow and crossing midline. A trend we notice is that the tone/atypical patterns we see in his right arm are to be more noticable when he is first learning a new skill whether that be reaching, sitting, hands/knees or now crawling/standing. After a couple of weeks of mastering that skill he will look totally symmetrical again. This cycle has continued with each new skill so I try hard not to freak out too much when those asymmetries arise...sometimes days I do better at that than others :).

 

I am happy to say that at this point in time Adam demonstrates age appropriate fine motor and visual motor skills on his right side. At his six month re-assessment in OT he had skills advanced for his age. Again, our concern at this point is now more for quality as well as continuing to progress his skills.

 

Some of the strategies we have used at home include lots of weightbearing through hands, tactile stimulation on the right side, exposure to varied textures in his right hand, modified constraint induced activities, dynamic splinting to encourage active supination and LOTS of repetition reaching in a varied of planes and positions.

 

Here is our little guy at work over the months:

 

First reaching - we gave him easy things to hold on to just to get
him used to using his right hand

Reaching against gravity

We used this to get him weight shifting onto his right to help strengthen while he reached with his left. Then we'd switch it to the other side to practice reaching on the right.

Lots and lots of blocks!

 

Giving him a variety of textures to explore

A little constraint induced time :)

He tolerates it quite well as long as he's not hungry or tired!

My little reindeer using both hands to manipulate toys

Always lots of weightbearing - doing this before we practice fine motor always helps

Happy to see him using both hands even without encouragement when he plays

Learning to clap!
At first he used the left hand to clap on the right and now he claps symmetrically!

Velcro on a cookie sheet from the dollar store - A great way to practice reaching for lots of shapes at different heights (sitting and hands and knees).

 

 

STANDING

 

Between 6 and 7 months Adam was able to consistently hold himself up in standing at a surface. We did all of our standing practice with manual assistance at a support surface and now that we see him standing with good posture he can play in his activity table for a few minutes here and there when I need a minute without him scooting away! We have been working hard on pulling to stand from sitting and kneeling positions. The tone in his right arm makes it difficult to assist him with the motion, but when he grips on his own he can now pull up by himself on your fingers, shirt or small rod. Next step will be larger surfaces like the basket, crib and furniture!

 

The laundry basket is a great place to practice!

Great symmetry, but his sister just yelled "banana!" in his face to try and make him smile...not so much :)

 

My happy little man with an open hand in standing trying to grab my phone!