How can physical therapy help infants?
In MANY ways!
✅ Improves floor mobility skills that are important for infants to master in order to ensure appropriate progression with gross motor skills. Floor skills encourage infants to be more independent in order to explore their environment!
📍Prone on elbows: 3 months
Prone “tummy time” on elbows helps to increase trunk extensor and shoulder girdle strength, challenges visual field and promotes weight shifting when reaching for toys in preparation for rolling.
Activities to work on:
Tracking a toy side to side
Reaching for toys close to trunk progressing to farther away from trunk
Sustained cervical extension looking at a toy above eye level
Prone on elbows over an uneven surface (pillow, couch cushion, folded blanket, etc)
📍Hands to midline: 3-5 months
Hands to midline encourages reaching for objects with both hands, transferring objects between hands, and assists with rolling by crossing midline with their arms.
Activities to work on:
Holding a larger toy with both hands
Reaching for a toy on their back at center of chest with both hands progressing to off of chest at shoulder height
Side lying reaching across their body for a toy
📍Feet to mouth: 5 months
Feet to mouth helps to develop core strength needed for future milestones such as sitting and creeping. Encouraging infants to reach for their toes also improves body awareness to their legs.
Activities to work on:
Placing items on feet (mardi gras beads, rattle socks, etc)
For beginners, it is best to start with a rolled towel underneath their hips to help elevate their legs off the floor to assist with this skill and then take away the towel support as they get stronger!
📍Prone on extended arms: 6 months
Prone “tummy time” on extended arms helps to further stabilize the shoulder girdle, strengthens triceps, hand intrinsics, and glutes, works on weight shifting needed for creeping, and further challenges visual field.
Activities to work on:
Tracking toy side to side
Reaching toy toys on floor progressing to shoulder height
Sustained cervical extension with toy above eye level
For beginners, try rolling a large towel or using a boppy to place under their upper trunk to make this easier, then progress to working on without this assistance!
📍Rolling: 4-6 months
Rolling is a big milestone as this is the first independent mobility infants learn! Typically infants will roll tummy to back first, but some may start with back to tummy. It is important that infants are able to roll over both their right and left sides, if a preference is noted please consult a PT as this may be due to trunk asymmetries, neglect of 1 side or trunk tightness to name a few reasons.
Activities to work on:
Side lying with the top legs hip/knee flexed
Weight shifting for toys in tummy time
Reaching for toes on back
Assisted rolling tummy to/from back for motor planning
✅ Sitting is a big milestone for infants as they are now able to resist gravity to have a different view of their environment and be more engaged with their family!
📍Propped sitting: 4-6 months
Propped sitting is the ability for an infant to sit with hands supported on the floor out in front of them. This helps to stabilize the shoulder girdle, strengthen triceps and hand intrinsics, challenge visual field, engages core and promotes weight shifting needed for independent sitting.
Activities to work on:
Assisted prop sit with hands on elevated toy or legs
Tracking toy for weight shifting
Reaching for toys next to and in between legs
📍Ring sitting: 5-7 months
Ring sitting is the ability for an infant to sit with their legs in a circle or “ring” without hands on the floor for support. This sitting progression challenges the co-contraction of abdominals and trunk extensors needed to maintain upright sitting. Ring sitting allows infants to start working on reaching for toys next to their trunk for weight shifting in preparation for protective reactions and helps to strengthen their hips.
Activities to work on:
Holding toys with both hands
Reaching for toys on floor next to trunk
Reaching for toy at level of belly button progressing to shoulder height
Sitting on your legs gently bouncing them while stabilizing their pelvis
📍Independent sitting: 7-9 months
Independent sitting is the final sitting progression when infants are able to sit without assistance and can “catch” themselves by using their arms to prevent them from falling over. Independent sitting continues to strengthen their hips and core needed for future milestones.
Activities to work on:
Reaching for toys outside base of support
Reaching for toys above shoulder height
Sitting on uneven surfaces (pillow, couch cushion, folded blanket, etc)
✅ Creeping “crawling” on hands and knees is an infants first primary means for mobility to explore their environment. Creeping provides so many benefits for infants such as enhancing vision, strengthening hand intrinsically needed for fine motor skills, stabilizes shoulder girdle and hips, promotes a strong core, bilateral coordination, and so much more! Infants should never skip crawling as it is such a HUGE milestone with so many benefits!
📍Static quadruped: 7-9 months
Static quadruped “hands and knees” is important to strengthen the core, stabilizes the hips necessary for standing, challenges visual field, and develops hand hand intrinsics needed for future fine motor skills.
Activities to work on:
Tracking toy to both sides
Rocking back and forth
Reaching for toy with 1 hand on floor progressing to shoulder height
For beginners, perform over your leg ensuring hands and knees are on the floor to make this position easier progressing to perform without your leg!
📍Creeping hands & knees: 9-11 months
Creeping is another big milestone for infants as this gives them the independence to be mobile and explore their environment. Creeping provides all the benefits of static quadruped, but also improves bilateral coordination!
Activities to work on:
Creeping over obstacles (pillows, blankets, your legs, etc)
Transitioning sitting to/from hands and knees over both sides
Creeping long distances. If your infant is creeping in any other pattern other than hands and knees please reach out for a PT consult as this is ATYPICAL!
If you have concerns that your infant has difficulties with their gross motor milestones, don't take the "wait and see approach" as early intervention is BEST!
Please reach out to get a PT screen! 706-840-0369 or Jlanford@betterdaystherapies.com
Better Days Therapies goal is to empower parents by providing education and encouraging support to aide in the growth of their child🌞
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