Crawling: a study of the age of its appearance and relationship with walking acquisition

Abstract

The present research aimed to investigate the age of appearance of crawling, its relationship with the walking acquisition. Thirty-five normal children between 5 and 13 months of age were selected from São Carlos' day-care, whose crawling and walking were not yet stated. The children were observed during 7 months and the ages of appearance of the motor behaviors were recorded in specific evaluation index cards. Statistical Survival Analysis of the data showed that most of the children began to crawl between 7 to 10 months of age (81%) and the largest probability of incidence occurred at the 7"' month (24%). Walking appeared between 10 and 15 months of age (83%); its largest probability of incidence occurred at the 13 month (21%). Just 5.7 % of all children did not present crawling as a transient mode of locomotion. Results obtained in the present study suggested an anticipation of the crawling acquisition when compared to findings of searched literature. Furthermore, the minimum latency period of 3 months between both motor behaviors seems to indicate that the crawling experience is a pre - requisite to gain the walking acquisition. Research was developed under permission of parents, according to the resolution 1/88 from CNS.