Crawling. Is it necessary?

In 2022, the CDC removed crawling as a milestone from their checklist, much to the dismay of many pediatric physical therapists. What was the reason? Lack of research. Although there is no clear, normative data to support if and when infants should crawl, it is not unimportant. There are many expert opinions and lots of clinical reasoning that supports crawling, but the truth is it hasn't been proven with research yet. Current research supports early mobility, in whatever form it takes. Here are the theories physical therapists have about the importance of crawling:

1. Building visual depth perception.

2. Developing bilateral motor coordination (using both arms and both legs).

3. Core strength and activation.

4. Postural development.

5. Hip and shoulder stability.

6. Palmar arch development and strengthening of hands for "fine" motor skills (drawing, writing, cutting, etc).

7. Promoting body awareness.

There is work being done in different physical therapy research labs across universities, but currently the published research cannot definitively prove these hypotheses. It is worth noting that these effects would be hard to determine because of challenges to prove causality. So, for now the crawling milestone is removed from the CDC's motor checklist. But it is still a worthy skill for parents and their babies.