The claim

「Skipping crawling and walking straight away means advanced development」

Q: Skipping crawling and walking straight away means advanced development

Partly true — In the WHO motor development study, 4.3% of children never showed hands-and-knees crawling at all — skipping it falls within normal variation, and it does not mean a child is brighter. Crawling is good for coordination and worth making room for, but if other milestones are lagging too, what needs assessing is overall development, not whether the child crawled.

Verdict

Partly true

In the WHO motor development study, 4.3% of children never showed hands-and-knees crawling at all — skipping it falls within normal variation, and it does not mean a child is brighter. Crawling is good for coordination and worth making room for, but if other milestones are lagging too, what needs assessing is overall development, not whether the child crawled.

Sources

WHO · World Health Organization
World Health Organization. (2006). WHO Motor Development Study: Windows of achievement for six gross motor development milestones. Acta Paediatrica Supplement, 450, 86–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2006.tb02379.x
Direct source · Peer-reviewed paper · checked 2026-10-13

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「Skipping crawling and walking straight away means advanced development」

Verdict

Sources

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Further reading