Crawling and motor development in early childhood education: Review and educational implications
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v85.119957Keywords:
early childhood, motor skills, crawling, locomotion, sensorimotor integrationAbstract
Introduction: During the first years of life, independent movement changes how children explore space, approach objects, and interact with others. In educational contexts, crawling is often framed in one of two limited ways: as a minor phase before walking or as a prerequisite for later development.
Objective: To review the functional role of crawling and early self-produced locomotion in children’s motor development and identify educational implications for the design of movement environments in early childhood education.
Methods: A narrative review was conducted of literature published through April 2026, complemented by relevant foundational studies. The final synthesis included 27 publications: 16 core sources on locomotion and early motor development and 11 theoretical or educational sources used to contextualize their implications for children aged 0-6 years.
Results: The reviewed literature did not support considering crawling a mandatory milestone or an essential condition for walking. It did, however, support viewing crawling as a locomotor experience involving contralateral coordination, proximal stability, weight transfer, postural regulation, perceptual exploration, and adaptation to the environment.
Discussion: The findings were consistent with dynamic and ecological approaches to development and suggested that the relevance of crawling lies in the motor and postural processes it engages rather than in a single developmental sequence.
Conclusions: From an educational perspective, the value of crawling lies not in artificially reproducing it, but in designing environments, opportunities, and materials that support autonomous, varied, and meaningful movement throughout early childhood.
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