As with adults, or any age for that matter, each milestone is reached after the skills are built to reach it. This means that developmentally the child needs to be ready, both physically and intellectually, for the milestone to occur. Once the milestone has occurred, the child must continue to use it, to practice the skill and to build upon it. A child learns to sit up, then to pull him self up and then to stand without assistance.

The same building of skills can be said with fine motor skills. A child begins with a Palmer grasp which evolves into a pincer grasp and the more practice a child has with using a skill, the faster it develops.

I have found over the years, that cutting is one skill that is often ignored by parents. This is an excellent skill to build on and it helps the child build in many developmental areas. Obviously, one of the skills built upon with using scissors are fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination but did you also know that scissors also help with spatial awareness, since the child needs to judge the distance between the scissors and the paper. It also builds on coordination and allows opportunities for a child to learn how to use their thumb and pointer finger in a smooth motion.

As with the gain of any skill, if the child is successful, this builds more self-confidence and a higher sense of esteem…and all of this is from a silly pair of scissors. Amazing, right?

Now back to actually getting your child to use scissors. I often find that many parents are terrified of allowing their child to use scissors and some of their worries aren’t unfounded. Yes, children have been hurt using scissors but if you have strict rules concerning scissors and are present when the scissors are in use, the likelihood of injury goes down significantly.

When you are getting ready to set up an opportunity for cutting with scissors, there are a few things that you should have. Good child safe scissors are important. Make sure they are sharp enough so they cut well and the child won’t become frustrated with his inability to cut. Next, use cardstock with younger children. The cardstock is less likely to bend in the scissors and the child can cut much easier. As they become more competent with the scissors, you can begin to use regular paper.

After that, simply explain scissor safety with your child. They should never run with scissors, or climb around with them in their hand. Scissors should be pointed away from their body and they need to hold paper far away from the scissors. You will have to correct hand placement every once in a while but they eventually get the picture. As for carrying scissors, teach children to hold the metal of the closed scissors, point down. If your child is young, just place a rule that they are not allowed to carry scissors from their seat but illustrate how to properly carry scissors by doing so yourself.

And now a few exercises with cutting.

Exercise 1:

If you don’t want to start with regular scissors, start with playdough scissors. This will help build the coordination and will provide lots of opportunity for cutting. Although this is a great exercise, it is important for children to also learn how to cut paper since this is a different experience and requires some problem solving.

Exercise 2:

Allow your child to snip cardstock while sitting at a table. Position hands and show him how to use the scissors with a hand over hand technique. Praise, talk about shapes he is cutting out and enjoy the time. Also get ready to settle in for a long time. I find that when children are successful with scissors, they will sit there for a good hour snipping away.

Exercise 3:

Take a large sheet of paper and tape it to the wall on the top. The child sits in front of it and cuts the paper. The wall serves as a guide and helps in keeping the scissors straight. The child also learns about angling his wrist so he can get a smooth cut.

Exercise 4:

Print out some sheets of lines and shapes for your child to cut out. This helps build a lot of coordination and you can also incorporate learning about shapes. Enchanted Learning has several sheets that you can print out for this activity, or you can make them yourself.

Oh, if you are eco-conscious, which is always a good idea, take the little bits of paper and place it in a bits container. When your child wants to do some gluing, take out the bits and let him create murals from the already cut pieces.

Sirena Van Schaik

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I wasn’t actually nervous but as each person reflected their own opinion on the matter I quickly began to stress about it.  Wait a minute, he’s 7 months old and he hasn’t crawled yet, now he’s 8 months old and he hasn’t crawled yet.  What is going on?  Fear found a nice spot in my stomach and I repeatedly searched through my various resource materials from the books I had in college on Child Development to the countless handouts I had picked up at various workshops and parenting classes.  I’m sure that you have probably been in the same place and maybe you still are.  There is so much stress with having to wait for that developmental milestone where you can say, “Whew, my child is just like all the rest, maybe even better because he or she did this before everyone else.”

If you are worried about your infant’s development, you should sit back and take a deep breath and remember this phrase, “Range of Normalcy.” 

Repeat that over and over to yourself and whenever someone asks if your child is crawling or has accomplished any other developmental milestone, say, “No but he is still in the range of normalcy.”

You will hear me say it often enough in all my developmental articles and all it refers to is the normal range of ages where a milestone takes place.  So with crawling, the range of normalcy is 6 to 10 months.  Yes some children crawl before 6 months and others crawl after 10 but the majority of children crawl between 6 to 10 months.  I knew this when I had my first son and I still stressed over his lack of interest in crawling.  In fact, my son didn’t crawl for the first time until he was just over 10 months old, on Father’s Day of all days!

Now that you know the range of normalcy for crawling, there are a few things that you can do to help promote crawling in your child.

1)  Get down on the floor with him or her.  Nothing encourages play and crawling more than if their mom and dad are sprawled out on their tummies moving around the floor with their child.  Not only does this give you a chance to play with your baby but it gives you the opportunity to see the world from his or her vantage point.  You can find little safety risks and deal with them before your baby gets a chance to pursue them.

2)  Place toys in front of your baby just out of reach so that rocking motions forward will bring the toy into his or her grasp.  Your baby will start reaching and will be encouraged to move forward.  This also helps with other developmental milestones such as hand eye coordination, and grasping.

3)  Limit the amount of time that you place your baby in a walker.  I’m not a big fan of walkers since they are the cause of many infant related injuries and there are some studies that point to walkers causing developmental delays but I have been guilty of using the saucers without the wheels.  They can be a great toy for any infant old enough to hold himself up but they should only be used for very short periods of time.  Even though many studies disagree over the impact, the chance of there being an impact is enough to avoid using them excessively.

4)  Remind yourself that your child will develop at his or her own speed.  If you have concerns and if your child is not crawling by 12 months of age, please speak with your pediatrician.

One last note about crawling:  Some children do not crawl, they go from sitting up to walking while others will scoot on their bottoms instead of crawling.  There is nothing unusual about this and you shouldn’t have any concerns if your child gains his mobility by sitting and scooting.  In the end, every child will find his or her own way in a manner that is uniquely theirs so just enjoy and love every moment of it.

Happy crawling,

 Sirena

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