Why mini-milestones can be > major milestones
Views about raising littles can either be empowering or "should" provoking, but here is some info in hopes it is the empowering route. BTW, who else is up for dropping the shoulds, aka fear in life?? So unnecessary.
Moving on.
With shiny new cars, things, houses, etc. being marketed at us constantly, it's tempting to feel life is all about the outcome. I am beyond elated that there seems to be a big movement toward living simply, staying present, and enjoying the moment vs living by age number or checking off life milestone boxes to define success and happiness- since we all know this doesn't work. We are all trying to figure it out and shake some old societal views and live our lives, yet some of this outcome stuff still sticks. The problem is, what sticks to us also rubs off on the littlest members of our world.
In the infant/toddler development world and beyond, this means that transitional movements are the most underrated motor milestones there are. Everyone has heard of rolling, crawling, sitting, walking, but transitional movements are rarely talked about. There is lots of wild advice out there on helping littles achieve these popular milestones, again affirming the outcome is what counts, not the process.
So what are these movements I'm talking about? Transitional movements are when babies begin to figure out how to get into sitting position, how to get into crawling position, how to rock and roll rhythmically, etc. and how to get out of these postures.
As a pediatric OT I'm thinking about everything happening along the way: the proprioceptive integration of pushing into and out of positions, the auditory processing happening to give feedback about body awareness and positioning in space, co-contraction of head/neck helping to integrate multiple body senses.... and the list goes on.
But above all is the mental, emotional, and physical COMPETENCY happening. The baby's feeling that they can slip up, not do things the right way at first, but eventually figure out the body awareness and motor planning to get there to make them okay. The feeling that they are confident in moving their body, that they can mess up and be okay, that they are a position where they would feel kosher getting into or out of, the feeling that they had some (tolerable) discomfort/uncertainty but ended up mastering that thang after lots of trial and error.
When you put a baby in sitting position before they are ready, they don't have this same competency or chance to feel all of the feels that come with getting there. When we place them in a position they are not sure about, the amygdala may activate with some fear sensations and the prefrontal cortex isn't balanced enough to modulate it, meaning the baby gets a layer of "yikes, I'm unsure" that may make them less likely to explore on their own - and can be easily avoided with some caregiver support.
The goal: create ample opportunities for movement (read: a flat floor, flat crib, flat section of grass, a pillow or box to climb on - you get the idea) and let them do their thing. If a baby isn't seeking this movement, there could be other things happening preventing them from that gorgeous exploration that ideally comes naturally. I would say to check with your pediatrician, but if I had a dime for every ped that told parents not to worry and they would grow out of it, I would be lathering myself in gold soap on the nightly.
Or something like that.
The takeaway is: set up the environment, check in with your local therapists trained in DIRFloortime to recognize subtle nuances if your mama/papa gut feels something is off, and most importantly enjoy every mini-step of these mini-milestones that in my eyes are the big ones.
