ROLL OVER

-

 A MOMENT IN MY TUMMY
A LIFETIME IN MY HEART

Rolling Over: An Important Milestone for Movement, Sensory-Motor Integration & Language

Like other gross motor milestones, rolling over is full of fuel for the baby’s development. It’s his/her first experience moving his entire body, and continues to strengthen his muscles, balance, and coordination.

It’s a big step in his sensory development as he builds an internal sense of his body and how he can move its parts to achieve a goal.

Rolling helps him learn to interact with his environment as he is exposed to new textures, temperatures, sights, smells, tastes and sounds.

Language learning widens as he begins to purposefully explore his surroundings and seek out interaction with you.

Highlights:

·         Rolling over its the first time babies experience independent mobility. It also prepares them for movement milestones to come.

·         Babies start rolling from front to back around 4 months, and master this skill by 6 months. Their first time rolling over is often by accident!

·         Rolling over helps babies strengthen muscles that are necessary for other movements, like pulling themselves up.

·         Rolling over helps develop two important senses: vestibular (balance) and proprioceptive (body awareness). 

·         Rolling over is often driven by curiosity. Parents and caregivers can use this time to boost language development by labeling objects and talking to their babies as they explore. 

 


When do Babies Roll Over?

Babies start to roll from front to back around 4 months. They usually master rolling from both front and back around 6 months.

Pediatric Physical Therapist Dr. Andrea Hayward, MSPT, DPT says that often, babies roll over for the first time by accident. They’ve spent many weeks on their tummies lifting and moving their heads, strengthening their muscles, and leaning from one side to another. One day they lean far enough to one side in the right position and boom!

Rolling Over and Movement

Rolling over is the baby’s first experience with full-body, independent, purposeful movement. It uses and strengthens all of his muscles. Especially important are the pelvis and trunk muscles, which he will soon use to pull himself up to sitting. Also important for sitting up are the arms, which he will use to push against the floor, prop himself up, and catch himself if he starts to fall over.

Rolling Over and Sensory-Motor Integration

Sensory-motor integration is what allows us to use our bodies without thinking about it (knowing how high to lift our leg to step out of the tub, for example) and being able to move in a balanced and coordinated way.

Pediatric Occupational Therapist Natasha Bravo, M.S., OTR/L explains that rolling helps develop two important senses involved in sensory-motor integration: Vestibular (a sense of our body in space) and proprioceptive (a sense of our body parts and how they work together). Rolling helps the baby understand where his body parts are in relation to the ground, to each other, and to objects around him. These “internal” senses help him navigate his environment and adapt to information he receives through his “external” senses (touch, sight, smell, taste and sound).

Our environment is full of external sensory information, which would be overwhelming if we hadn’t learned to understand and respond to it as babies. Movement milestones gradually introduce your baby to sensory information and what to do with it: He rolls from a soft blanket onto a wood floor, feels that it is hard and cold, and rolls back onto the blanket. Or he rolls into a spot of sunshine, notices the light has changed, and closes his eyes against the brightness. In these ways, he becomes accustomed to taking in, organizing, and using information from the environment.

Rolling Over and Language Development

Curiosity-driven play, within the context of meaningful interactions, is the main driver of language development for your baby, and will be for much of his childhood. Pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist Mandy Alvarez, M.S., CCC-SLP says that rolling over is an important milestone for play because you can begin to follow your baby’s lead as he explores a whole new world. He will seek out things that interest him and you can follow along, labeling and talking about them. He will love this interaction with you, and it will motivate him to continue exploring and connecting with you. These interactions also teach him about expressing himself (I want that toy), cause and effect (I shake this toy, you laugh), and non-verbal communication (you’re smiling, that means I should keep doing this).

How can you encourage your baby to start rolling?

1. Get your baby out of “baby containers” as much as possible - Limit time in the car seat, Bumbo, Johnny Jump Up, whatever!  Get down on that floor and talk to her.  Encourage her to come to you.

2. Tummy time!!.

3. Position babies on one side during play (placing a toy on the floor for them to look at)

4. Carry babies in different positions

5. Upright, tucked, in sidelying on either side – carrying in different positions can help babies get used to that type of movement experience.

6. Rocking and rolling

7. Playfully rock your baby from side to side using her shoulders or her legs while singing a favorite song.  This gives her the feel of using the different segments of her body to move.

8. Foot rattles

9. Foot rattles that velcro around the ankles or foot finders  like these are great for encouraging baby to get those feet up in the air, where he’ll begin using them to rock side to side.

10. Slide and ride - Try making a little “ride” for baby!  Fold up a blanket to make a padded surface and pull her around the floor either while she’s lying on her back or during tummy time.  This is great for weight shifting and balance

Why is learning to roll so important?


Babies will usually roll toward something motivating like a toy that lights up or makes sound or even toward a doting parent.  It is their first taste of mobility and may often lead to consecutive rolls to get from one point to another.  Be sure to be vigilant and stay nearby during diaper changes or dressing because once your baby figures out how to move, she will take every opportunity to practice whether you are ready or not!

Besides mobility, rolling works on some less obvious developmental skills.  One big benefit — getting both sides of the body to work together to achieve a goal!  This is bilateral coordination and it is a skill that is extremely important for crawling and walking, transferring toys from one hand to another and, later, for handwriting, reading, independent dressing, and higher level gross motor skills.

Rolling also plays a big part in core strengthening and overall body strengthening so that, eventually, baby can move on to more exciting tricks like learning to crawl and sitting up.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DROOPY PELVIC FLOOR

-
Image
DROOPY PELVIC FLOOR  “MAY YOUR COFFEE, PELVIC FLOOR, INTUITION AND SELF-APPRECIATION BE STRONG” INTRODUCTION The pelvic floor is a funnel- shaped structure which is made up of a layer of muscles covering the bottom of the pelvis that support the bladder and bowel in men and bladder, bowel and womb in women. These structures that sit on top of the pelvic floor are known as our pelvic organs. The muscles run like a hammock from the front of the pelvis to the tailbone (coccyx) at the back, and side-to-side from one sitting bone to another. It is similar to trampoline, as they have the ability to move up and down. The pelvic floor consists of two main muscles, the leavtor ani, and the coccygeus. The leavtor ani muscle is a broad thin muscle made up of 3 muscles – pubococcygeus, puborectalis and iliococcygeus. The muscle join in the middle of pelvis except at the prostrate in males and vagina and urethra in females. The coccygeus is also known as ischiococcygeus muscle. It is a small mu...
Read more

NEUROBICS

-
Image
"If our minds are just as important as our bodies, why do we hear A LOT about exercising our bodies and eating healthy but rarely about exercising our minds??"  Neurobics is a term coined by the renowned Dr. Lawrence Katz . It is a new science of brain exercises that were devised based on extensive scientific evidence conducted by Dr Lawrence Katz and Dr. Manning Rubin . Neurobics are simple exercises that use the 5 senses -  TOUCH-SOUND-TASTE-SMELL-SIGHT   together with  emotions  in unexpected ways that have remarkable results. Neurobics challenges your memory, attention, logic as well as verbal skills and encourages you to disrupt your everyday routines. By doing so, the brain reignites new pathways and connections that were underused and hence strengthens the nerve connections and receivers. In exchange you benefit from having a more elastic and fit mind which helps in memory- remembering people's names, or where you parked your car, so you be...
Read more