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Learning Skills

  • Cause and effect
  • Motor control
  • Precrawling exercise

Wiggle Worm

When your baby’s feet press against a solid surface, she stretches out her legs. This is called the “walking reflex.” Use this reflex to help your baby practice for crawling.

Materials

  • Soft, nonslippery floor surface
  • Colorful toy

Instructions

  • Place your baby on a soft floor, on her tummy.
  • Place a colorful toy a few inches from your baby’s head and call her attention to it.
  • Sit behind your baby, with your legs or hands pressed against her feet. Your baby will push against the pressure, causing her to propel a few inches forward, toward the toy.
  • Keep moving the toy and pushing against your baby’s feet until she has inched forward and covered some ground.

Safety

Be careful not to move your baby too fast. Don’t let her get too close to the toy, or she may hit her head against it.

* Play and Learn activities reprinted from “Baby Play and Learn” with permission of its author, Penny Warner, and its publisher, Meadowbrook Press (1999).