Transitional Movement

I’m Kirsty Brocklehurst and I’m a Children’s Physiotherapist and I’m Sally Hillis-Davis and I’m a Children’s Occupational Therapist and we are the Practical Child. We’re going to be sharing some common issues around child development and our top tips for how you can help.

When we’re thinking about developmental milestones, most things that spring to mind are learning to fit, learning to crawl things like tummy time might even come to your mind. A lot of these positions are quite static and quite still and often parents put their child in fact conditions so they may lay them on their tummy or puts them in settings or placed them in standing and we all do that. And that’s fine, but actually what’s really important to remember as well is how your child learns to move between this position. It’s not just about the static positions, the movements in between. We often refer to as transitional movements.

And my top tip is to always teach your child how to meet between those positions. So things like when you’re doing tummy time, roll your baby onto their tummy and then when they’re finished with their tummy time, rather than just picking them up, roll them back onto their back again and then you can pick them up from there. That things like when they’re learning to fit, placing toys to the side, to encourage a child to be able to move onto their hands and knees, to learn how to get into the cooling position.

Likewise, learning to stand, try to teach your child how to stand up rather than just placing them in a standing position, pop toys up high on sofas, coffee tables and encourage your child to crawl up to that surface and then put their hands up to pull themselves up into standing themselves.