Tummy time can help strengthen the head, shoulder, neck, and upper body muscles which will help your baby later on when they’re ready to crawl, reach and roll over. Here are some ways to ensure your baby receives the benefits of tummy time during these rapidly changing infant developmental stages and milestones
When to start tummy time
Childhood development stages beyond tummy time
While there has been an emphasis on the importance of tummy time, recent research indicates that yes, it is important but parents need not go out of their way to make it happen like clockwork every day. There’s no reason to overthink it.
Providing a variety of experiences for your little one is imperative to their development. If you’re only able to get your baby to participate in tummy time for a few minutes, so be it. The benefits of tummy time are not just relegated to the physical, of course, there’s the cognitive aspect, but probably not in the way that you think.
“It is good for all of us — babies, children, adults — to push ourselves out of our comfort zone a little bit and practice things that are hard for us,” Dr. Lee Beers, M.D., a pediatrician at Children’s National Health System in Washington, D.C., told The New York Times.
Recent research from the American Psychological Association indicates that babies typically begin walking right before they learn language skills. More tummy time, could lead to faster crawling and walking, and ultimately talking. So in that sense, cognitive development is one of the benefits of tummy time.
But, if your little one just won’t tolerate it, do not worry. There will be ample opportunity to encourage your child — beyond infancy — to expand their horizons. Children will experience a variety of physical, intellectual, speech, and cognitive changes through adolescence. Tummy time is just one small blip during the early childhood developmental stages and not an indicator of future growth and development
