3 Reasons Babies Should Learn to Roll Before Learning to Sit

As a parent, you want to do what’s best for your baby. You may be tempted to help them learn how to sit as soon as possible, but did you know that babies should actually master the skill of crawling before they transition into sitting up? It might sound strange, but there are many reasons why this is important which is why today I am sharing 3 reasons babies should learn to crawl before learning to sit. 

Sitting is Really Easy

Rolling and crawling are much harder than sitting for a baby, but they teach the building blocks to lead the way.

Everything your baby needs to know for sitting later in life, like strength and coordination, they will learn from crawling. Yes, they may have a balance challenge that they will need to learn, but rolling and crawling provide the building blocks that your baby needs for sitting.

Learning to sit too early on is not that great of a challenge. Your baby is just learning to stack themselves, head over trunk over pelvis without actually developing the strength and coordination to back that balance.

Rolling and crawling will teach them the strength and coordination they need for really important functional sitting.

Our Culture Encourages Excessive Sitting

So many baby products today are geared at teaching kids to sit early. Equipment like Sit-me-ups, Bumbo chairs, high chairs, and swings all encourage our babies to be upright much earlier than they used to be.

All of this upright stacked sitting is not very functional for your baby. Babies will learn how to bias and be upright and want to do more sitting much earlier than they did traditionally.

In our culture of excessive upright positioning devices, it’s important to be intentional about our playtime with our children and make a solid effort to get them extra time on the floor to practice the hard stuff like rolling and crawling. This is more beneficial than sticking them into a container and practicing excessive upright sitting.

Babies Prefer to Be Upright and Engaged

When we allow our babies to sit upright early they like it. They get to interact with the world, see the dog run across the room, or look at mom and dad walking into the room.

The older they get and the more cognitively intact they become as they learn social engagement, the harder it is to convince them to go back down to those rolling and crawling skills where it’s harder to engage with the world on the floor.

When babies miss those early opportunities for rolling and crawling which are extremely important for the larger milestones down the road, it will be much harder come 6-7 months to convince them to go backward and to work on the rolling and crawling so they can get themselves into sitting on their own. That is the ultimate goal. 

Rolling and crawling are both independent methods of mobility whereas sitting is static. While it is easy for your baby to learn how to sit perfectly upright, they can’t move. They can’t get in and out of a sitting position. They can’t change their position to get their toy. Learning how to do these transitions without the building blocks of rolling and crawling is hard. 

FAQ

Am I suggesting that you should never let your baby sit upright?

Not at all! Around 4-6 months babies can start to do some early prep sitting. The trick is in the balance. We should be emphasizing floor time and doing the easy stuff like sitting about 25% of the time. 

I suggest that babies practice the hard things like rolling and crawling about 75% of the time early on so they get those foundational skills. It is perfectly okay to sprinkle sitting into their development. You just don’t want it to be the overarching theme. 

Have a plan. If your baby is struggling with rolling, crawling, and tummy time, get a plan to make it better. This way 75% of the time you are practicing the floor skills you have a purpose. You have direction. You have confidence so you can help your baby to be successful 

Is it ever too late to go back and work on the rolling and crawling?

No! If your baby is under 7 months and struggling to do rolling and pre-crawling skills you are primed and ready to have a plan. As your baby gets older they will struggle and you may need one on one PT support.

If your baby is under 7 months and they are biased to sitting and they have not learned to roll and crawl now is your moment to start with a plan. 

My 3-6 Month Masterclass covers rolling, tummy time & early sitting and my 6-10 Month Masterclass is all about crawling, sitting & transitions into and out of sitting!  They are your step-by-step plan and approach to getting your baby those underlying skills they need for milestone success in the future. 

Come join me if you want to be proactive so you don’t have to go backward or wish you had done things differently in the future. 

Always remember, you are doing a fantastic job!