To Crawl or Not to Crawl

For the first few months of their lives, infants are stuck on the ground. But then, something magical occurs: they start crawling! Is crawling something humans learn to do, or is it an innate ability? In a mother’s womb, a fetus is able to “move” from one place to another, but the second a fetus is born, gravity kicks in and the newborn is unable to move around.

For many years, it was believed that newborn movements were not really movements, but mere reflexes that disappeared very soon after birth. However, researchers observed that even one hour after birth, a baby could slowly inch its way toward its mother’s breast. When further investigated in an experiment, babies were held above a screen where they could see black dots moving down the screen, giving the illusion of movement. As the infant saw these black dots moving, they began to move their arms and legs, “swimming” in the air. This signifies that there are primitive connections between the brain, spine, vision, and motor activity. The crawling pattern then is something that comes from the brain.

Crawling is something that is difficult for newborns because of the weight and size of their heads. But in 2016, the “Crawlerskate”, a mini skateboard, was invented for further study. Newborns, only days old, were strapped belly down to the skateboard wearing special motion-sensitive suits. Then something amazing began to happen: the newborns began to push themselves forward on the Crawlerskate. This ultimately means that babies are born with an innate ability to move and crawl around. This experiment also proved to be somewhat controversial.

For decades, people believed that humans were born as bipeds, beings that walked on two legs; however, thanks to the Crawlerskate experiment, research is now starting to suggest that humans are actually born as quadrupeds, beings that use four legs or feet to move around.