A Water Basin, Dad and Mom's Crumpled Pictures, and a Diaper Changing Mat

The Ultimate Motivators!

What is so special about a water basin, dad and mom's crumpled pictures and a diaper-changing mat? These are Mattie's ultimate motivators in learning how to crawl! It took us a few months to arrive at this new milestone. It took a lot of prompting and endless cheering from Mom, Dad, and Yaya (babysitter), strengthening exercises, and experiments on a number of toys that would work as bait, before Mattie finally got motivated to move and begin crawling!

In Patricia C. Winders' book: Gross Motor Skills in Children with Down Syndrome, she notes that the most difficult part in learning how to crawl is moving forward the first 1-2 feet. First and foremost, our kids need to strengthen their arms so they can pull their full body weight forward across the floor. Second, they need to figure out a way on how to coordinate their arms, legs, and trunk, and move them so they can finally nudge forward. We need to provide them with the ultimate toy or motivators in order to get them stimulated and begin crawling. The motivators are needed so that they work on moving forward to the toy no matter what they have to do with their bodies!  

We tried a lot of toys to motivate Mattie to crawl. I think I took out and tried all the toys we had kept in his toy chest to try to coax him into moving. I even bought this toy ball with a "self roll" function that lights up and sings various tunes, hoping that he'll go after and crawl to it. Little did I know that the simplest things like a water basin, a diaper changing mat and our crumpled pictures would do the trick (Note to self: Do not be teased by very convincing marketing ploys into buying unnecessary toys). But then again, maybe Mattie was just not ready to crawl that time when I was making him chase after the ball, or maybe there was something just a little bit more interesting with the water basin, the changing mat, and our pictures that motivated him into moving. I would like to think that it’s the latter.  

So what was so irresistible with the 3 magical things that made Mattie finally move?
1) The Water Basin: We filled the basin with water each time we lured Mattie into crawling after it. Mattie loves the sensation of water splashing against his hands. I think the thought of getting his hands cold and wet was enough for him to crawl after this bait.
2) Mom and Dad’s pictures: Everyday, I would show these pictures to Mattie to teach him the concepts of mom and dad. I would tell him: “This is mommy, and this is daddy” and would sometimes ask him to point to me which is mommy or daddy (And guess what by chance 70 percent of the time, he actually gets the answer right!) I guess it’s the familiarity with the pictures that made it irresistible for him.
3) Diaper Changing Mat: Those of us who grew up in the Philippines during the 80’s would be familiar with this kind of changing mat. This mat is colored blue on one side and pink on the other side, has a rubbery material, and has like a bubble wrap texture. Mattie has a thing for textures. Maybe the rubbery and bubble wrap material provided him with a feeling he couldn’t resist!

These were the things that made Mattie crawl his first 1-2 feet. Once he got the hang of moving, anything even a small cotton ball could lure him into crawling!

Here’s a video of Mattie crawling:

What are your ultimate motivators? Happy crawling!


Mattie’s Mom

Note: In the book: Gross Motor Skills in Children with Down Syndrome, crawling and creeping are defined differently as to those we currently use. To make my entry simpler, I’ve just used the term crawling to refer to both.  

Definitions:
Crawling: refers to your child moving forward with his belly on the floor, pulling with his arms and pushing with his legs.
Creeping: refers to your child moving forward on hands and knees, stomach up, in quadruped.