Children with ADHD often have learning disabilities. They are lag behind their peers in motor skills, academic skills and social skills. This leads to frustration and acting out to get attention. Connections between the cerebellum and frontal lobes must be functioning properly in order to supress primitive reflexes and facilitate motor development, cognitive learning and emotional maturity. Also, the connections between the left and right brain must be working smoothly to facilitate higher learning. Research has shown that infant crawling and other pre-walking movements strengthen these connections and facilitate childhood literacy.

Most infants these days are not allowed to crawl and move freely. They are stuck in the Johnny Jumpers, swings, cribs, car seats and strollers. Daycare providers often are not trained in the importance of encouraging crawling and movement. Moms and Dads who work all day are too exhausted to engage in a movement program with their children.

Repetitive, cross lateral movement, such as crawling, strengthens and integrates the left and right brain. This helps the brain share sensory information, and helps the brain store and retrieve information. It also helps the brain retrieve and store information more rapidly. Infants and children who are encouraged to crawl and are allowed freedom of movement fare better on performance tests than those who did not crawl properly or did not crawl at all.

Neuroscience and brain hemisphere research has shown that the parts of the brain control movement also control cognition and emotion. Even minor delays in sensory motor development any child can cause dysfunction in behavior and learning. The brain stem, at the base of the brain, relays messages to other parts of the brain for movement and sensations. The cerebellum, a cauliflower shaped organ at the top of the brain stem, controls balance and coordination. The frontal lobe, the front one third of the brain, is responsible for initiation, planning/anticipation, follow-through, impulsivity control, judgment, reasoning, abstract thinking, smell, motor planning, personality, emotionality, speaking, integration of thought and emotion, and self-monitoring. If a child has to use all his energy to keep his body and emotions under control, then he will have little energy left to focus on the thinking tasks required of him in school.

When a baby starts to crawl, the production of myelin is increased. Myelin, a substance coating the neuron, helps the brain send and receive messages faster and more clearly. The more myelin, the faster the transmission. Therefore, crawling is fundamental to all future learning.

Working in a Montessori school for three years, I have had the privilege to observe children’s development from age three to six over the course of three years. In my school, we had a morning wake up exercise routine using exercises from Rhythmic Movement Training and from Brain Gym. These simple, repetitive movements, such as infant crawling and passive rocking help strengthen integrate the left and right brain. I noticed over time that the children who consistently participated in these exercises were overall more physically coordinated, more focused on their work, able to overcome challenges, and more mature in their social interactions than the children who consistently avoided these exercises.

My son fit the description of ADHD to a tee. Constantly climbing walls and throwing things. Unable to sit still. Temper tantrums. Rocking in the chair, banging the pencil and doodling instead of completing homework. I have been doing Rhythmic Movement Training exercises with him, including infant crawling, and when we are consistently doing the exercises, he is able to focus on his work and complete homework without the constant pencil banging and chair rocking and doodling. I have found my own organization and problem solving skills have improved as well.

Many people do not realize that motor development is related to cognitive development.

Even Jean Piaget, in the Origins of Intelligence in children maintained that higher functional levels depend on functional efficiency of lower levels. Any deficit or malfunction in lower levels affects all related higher levels of learning.

Neuroscience and brain hemisphere research has shown that the parts of the brain that control movement also control cognition and emotion. Even minor delays in sensory motor development in any child can cause dysfunction in behavior and learning. The brain stem, at the base of the brain, relays messages to other parts of the brain for movement and sensations. The cerebellum controls balance and coordination. The frontal lobe is responsible for initiation, planning, follow-through, impulse control, judgment, reasoning, abstract thinking, smell, motor planning, personality, emotionality, speaking, integration of thought and emotion, and self-monitoring. The connections between the cerebellum and the frontal lobe must be working smoothly to facilitate higher learning tasks essential for literacy.

Rae Pica, a child movement specialist, author of Your Active Child: How to Boost Physical, Emotional and Cognitive Development through Age Appropriate Activity explains that movement skills (basic functions) affect cognitive abilities (higher functions).

Children who crawl as infants tend to score higher on assessment tests than those who skip crawling. Renowned physical therapist Dr. Miriam L. Bender, Ph.D maintains that 75% of learning disabilities can be traced back to a lack of proper crawling as an infant.

Neurophysiologist Carla Hannaford, Smart Moves: Why Learning is Not All in Your Head says that from infancy and throughout our entire lives, “ physical movement plays an essential role in creating nerve cell networks that are the essence of learning.”

Our government spends billions of dollars on literacy programs and standardized testing. Yet, test scores continue to go down and illiteracy continues to rise. Hannaford suggests that one of the key elements we are missing is simply movement.

Sally Goddard, founder of the Institute for Neural- Physiological Psychology (INPP), explains that every normal, full-term baby is born with a set of primitive reflexes  that become integrated or inhibited during the first year of life. If they are not integrated at the proper time, they interfere with development of balance, motor control, eye functioning, eye-hand coordination and perceptual skills.

This leads to frustration, hyperactivity, hypersensitivity, and learning disabilities.

With that, a tag is chosen for the child, such as ADHD, Autistic, OCD, Dyslexic….

Then psychotic drugs are prescribed to address the behaviors.

If you want an alternative to psychotic drugs to stop ADHD behavior, and it pains you to see your child falling further and further behind his peers in his literacy skills, encourage him to crawl.

Infant crawling is one activity that helps facilitate cognitive development for childhood literacy. The cross lateral movement of crawling activates the left and right brain hemispheres in a balanced way. The child uses both hands, both feet both eyes and both ears simultaneously. He uses near and far vision to look down and to look ahead.

Crawling refines fine and gross motor skills, facilitates hand/eye coordination, strength, muscle tone, balance, finger dexterity, and language development. As the right and left brain become strengthened and integrated, ease of learning is enhanced and childhood literacy is achieved.

Crawling also helps integrate the primitive reflexes. An infant must crawl in the proper posture for at least six months to suppress primitive reflexes and allow for efficient higher learning. As the higher centres in the brain increasingly take over the functions of the primitive reflexes, the early survival patterns are inhibited and mature patterns of response develop in their place. The postural reflexes are developed and strengthened. This helps the child to develop control of his body, posture and movements.

As the right and left brain are integrated and strengthened, and the primitive reflexes give way to the postural reflexes, the child becomes more and more efficient in learning to read, write and understand language.

Now, you may be thinking that if your child skipped crawling, there is no hope for remedy. But, this is not true. My employer, Mary Gazca began crawling as part of the Rhythmic Movement Training routine at our school. I have observed her becoming more organized at the school and able to confront unexpected challenges with ease. She has noticed her memory and confidence in public speaking improving, as well.

I have experienced the same thing in my life. My kindergarten teacher said I would never make it to college. My college professors said I would never make it as a teacher. I had trouble keeping jobs because of all the problems that my lack of organization skills caused.

After doing these exercises for a few months, I found myself organizing closets just for the fun of it. This new organization skill helps me in my ability to research ADHD and write articles as I work from home with Renegade University. 

Infant crawling , as part of a movement program, facilitates higher learning skills needed for childhood literacy. Infant crawling integrates primitive reflexes and helps the child gain control of his body, posture and movement. Infant crawling integrates the left and right brain to facilitate motor development and cognitive development necessary for childhood literacy.

Encourage your child to crawl, no matter what age. Get down on your hands and knees and play cat and mouse. Make time for movement activities every day. You and your child will benefit. Get involved in a movement program, such as Brain Gym or Rhythmic Movement Training, designed to integrate left and right brain and designed integrate primitive reflexes.