Early Mobility and Crawling: Beliefs and Practices of Pediatric Physical Therapists in the United States.
Kari S Kretch, Stacey C Dusing, Regina T Harbourne and 3 others
PMID 38127897WHAT IT FOUND
Nearly all US pediatric PTs valued independent mobility, but most also valued hands-and-knees crawling and said they would train it or discourage other mobility, although the paper reports little evidence for specific crawling effects.
Key findings
01Nearly all participants agreed independent mobility is important for development, and most agreed hands-and-knees crawling is important, but fewer agreed it is necessary before walking.
02When working with a child using another floor mobility method, 82.3% said they would train hands-and-knees crawling and 50.5% said they would discourage the alternative method.
03A majority disagreed with removing crawling from CDC milestone checklists, and stronger crawling beliefs were linked to more training and discouraging alternative mobility.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Participants were recruited through social media and listservs, so PTs with stronger opinions about crawling may have been overrepresented. The survey items were not externally validated or formally checked for bias. Answers were self-reported beliefs and intended actions, not observed patient care or measured child outcomes. The sample is limited to pediatric PTs in the United States. Effects of years of experience were small, so experience did not strongly explain beliefs or clinical approaches.
Declared interests
The article reports NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support. The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, or publication.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the high agreement percentages as evidence that crawling improves development. This paper measures what therapists believe and say they would do, not patient outcomes.