L’s been able to lie on her stomach and hold up her head from some time now. Recently, she learned that her arms can help her in the endeavor.

It’s the first step to crawling, no pun intended. At least we hope. We’re a little worried that she might want to skip crawling since she’s already “standing” and “walking” all the time. Why? Well, there’s all the hype about the importance of crawling, like this:

There have been some studies that indicate that late walkers score better later in life on academic achievement tests. It is hypothesized that because of the use of alternating sides of the body (e.g., right arm and left leg, then vica versa), there is increase communication between the two sides of the brain thus enhancing learning. (The Mentor Mom)

On the other hand:

There are many perfectly normal, well-coordinated children who bypass the crawling stage to move onto other modes of locomotion. Two of our own children, Robert and Erin, had very short crawling stages. Robert (now a partner in the Sears Family Pediatric practice) scooted on his bottom with one leg straight out and the other leg bent under him. Our daughter, Erin, stopped crawling at nine months and “walked” on her knees. (Parenting.com, via the Way Back Machine)

It’s just one of the many “do I really need to worry about this?” parenting issues…