Army Crawl Fix

How I used purposeful play to break up my baby’s emerging hitch crawl and get a symmetrical crawl.

Play Pro approach

Despite what you may think, I do not sit around and constantly “work on milestones” with my kids, even if I do parent through a pediatric PT lens.

Instead, I do this:

Give lots of oppertunities for free movement
Watch mini-milestone patterns closely
Sprinkle little moments of purposeful play into daily tasks

It’s more about knowing what mini-milestones to look out for and intentionally meeting baby where she at in play.

The goal is to support where my children are at now and set a solid foundation for all that comes next.

If you want a breakdown of all of the mini-milestones I look for as a pediatric PT + play ideas to naturally sprinkle in to your baby’s day stage to stage, check out my First Year Motor Milestone Journal.

It is designed to help you use this approach while confidently navigating gross motor development.

(And just for checking out this post, use code BLOG15 at checkout to save 15%.)

That being said, if I notice something is off, I can address it quickly by being a bit more intentional and proactive with designated purposeful play.

That’s exactly what I needed to do recently with army crawling.

The Problem

Little Sis is officially on the move with an army crawl! I keep finding Little Scootie not where I left her all of the sudden.

But… there is one big thing I’m noticing. She is primarily pushing through her right leg to push herself forwards.

Why? Its a downstream compensation pattern for some residual body tension and positional preferences present from birth. Left unchecked, I have no doubt we would have ended up with significant torticollis and head flatness. Thankful, I’ve been able to use my background as a therapist to spot and address this from the beginning. These subtle asymmetrical patterns tend to pop back up with jumps to new skills though and need to be addressed.

The solution:

Here’s 1 thing I’m sprinkling into purposeful play throughout the day to break up the janky army crawl:

Giving her a launch pad to push through on the left leg.

Make a letter L with my hand.
Bend left leg up and to the side.
Place my thumb on ball of her foot.
Hold and wait for her to push through this left leg.

This cues Little Sis to push through the toes, leg, and hip on this left side.

(Note: This is not the only piece of the puzzle to breaking out of a stubborn hitch crawl or addressing underlying causes. It is just one way I used purposeful play to break up the compensation pattern before it spilled into a full blown hitch/ janky creep on all 4s. Hitch crawling often goes hand in hand with a head tilt or increased body tension.)

Why it Matters

Babies should be able to use both sides of the body in the same way.

If my little one continues to only push through one side in army crawling, the pattern will only become more engrained with every push forward.

One side of the body continues to be shorted while the other side lengthens. One side continues to build strength within this hitch pattern.

However, when I intervene with a bit of purposeful play, that reverses.

The brain starts building a symmetrical movement pattern plan based on sensory feedback.

Tissues start elongating and shortening more evenly.

Muscles start building strength more evenly on the left and the right.

It’s not about having a pretty crawl for the sake of how it looks. How a baby moves is influenced by and continues to build the brain and body.

Update

Okay- update, I actually wrote this 2 weeks ago and never got around to adding to the blog.

I am happy to say Little Sis is now fully creeping on hands and knees a few steps at a time- using a nice symmetrical pattern.

With a strong positional preference from birth, I continue to keep a close eye out for any emerging janky crawling or other signs of residual torticollis. In the meantime, Little Sis is getting into all kinds of trouble with her new found independence.

While it is all fine and dandy that she is well on the early side for creeping on hands and knees, I care much more about the quality of the movement pattern.

I hope this encourages you to step back to look at HOW your little one is hitting milestones- not just WHEN.

Grab a copy of the First Year Motor Milestones Journal if you are looking for more guidance on exactly what to look for stage to stage and how to gently support your little one on their gross motor journey.

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