My neighbor next door came back from China (where she is originally from) and she was telling me about her experience with her new baby niece.  Since the time her sister found out she was pregnant, she asked me for advice on products, books, and misc items for her sister.  One thing I have to mention is that China has the one child policy meaning that you could only have one child.  More than one child results in a heavy fine only affordable to the Riches. 

With that law in place, every child in China is an only child.  For that reason, parents feel that they have one shot to get it right and do everything in their power to raise the best child they can.  Asians in general have an international pride about education.  The competition to get into top universities is like winning the lotto and trying to get into any university is almost as difficult (the odds are not in their favor).

One day my neighbor came over and observed my 10 month old for a good hour.  My baby was crawling all over the place and she told me to keep my baby crawling for as long as I can.  When she said that, I smiled, but in the back of my mind I was wondering why she said that.  As a parent, the next developmental milestone is for her to be walking.  I know that when developmental milestones are not reached by a given time frame, some parents tend to freak out.

The next time my neighbor was over, I asked her why she told me to keep the baby crawling.  She said that her sister read in a book that the longer the baby crawls the smarter the baby will be.  I had never read or heard of such thing.  Of course I had to go online and do my research to see if this was true.  When I did a general search online, there were tons of information that linked crawling to brain development.  If I had known this information before, I probably would have continued to crawl myself (it would have helped me with high school Calculus).

One site that I found to be helpful had an article from Child Genius Magazine that said that every baby has genius potential.  Moreover, physical activity stimulates brain growth.  The article also advised that parents should not aid in walking because the more the baby crawls and creeps the more brain development will take place.

Wow!  Did you know that crawling babies equalled baby geniuses?  I didn’t.  Currently, my baby is crawling like an athlete, so I will continue to let her to do what she knows best.  I have never been a fan of aiding in walking because when the time is right she will do it on her own and on her time.  For now, it’s good to know that her crawling benefits her own brain development!