- As an occupational therapist, parents often ask me
what they can do to help their baby learn to roll
from their back to their tummy.
In this video, you're gonna learn what age you can start
to expect your baby to roll from their back
onto their tummy.
And most importantly, for simple activities that you can do
with your baby right now, which is going to help develop
those muscles required to roll.
And also the skill itself of rolling.
So, make sure you stick around.
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Before we get into it, make sure you click
on that free PDF document in the description box below,
which covers the developmental milestones
you can be expecting in your baby's first year of life.
This will give you an invaluable peace of mind
as you'll know what to expect and when to be concerned.
Also, if you wanna make parenting significantly easier,
make sure you start now by subscribing to my channel,
where I'll share with you the tips and tricks
I've learned along the way,
practicing as a pediatric occupational therapist
for the past 10 years.
So, firstly, when do babies start to learn to roll
from there back to the tummy?
Now, you can expect this skill to start to develop
at around four to seven months of age.
Now, when your baby's learning to roll from their back
onto their tummy, there's a natural progression
they'll go through.
So, initially, your baby will start to hold their head
in midline, which happens around three months
and then they'll start to track the toy.
So, they'll track the toy using their eye and head movement.
So, they'll start to follow the toy with their head.
As their body gets stronger,
when they follow the toy with their head,
their shoulders will start to lift
and rotate off the ground.
And then as they get stronger, still,
they'll follow the toy with their head, their shoulder
and their hips will start to rotate and lift off the ground.
And then they'll start to go into sideline.
When they're inside lying, they might stay in this position
and kind of play and then roll back onto their back.
Or they'll stay in this position
and gravity will kind of assist them to roll completely
onto their tummy or they'll develop the muscle control
and strength to complete that final movement
and roll onto their tummy.
So, that's a natural progression of developing the skill
to roll from your back onto your tummy.
Now, what four activities can you do
to help your baby learn this skill?
The very first activity you can do with your baby,
which not a lot of parents are aware of,
is that you can actually assist your baby to roll
over from their back onto their tummy.
And you can do this at a really young age.
I would do this with my children at around two weeks of age.
They weren't born prematurely
and they were no medical complications.
So, if that is the case with your little Bob
make sure you check with your physiotherapist
or the pediatrician first.
But if they're all fine in regards to medical development
then you could start assisting them
to roll onto their tummy.
Now, why you would do that is that it helps your baby learn
that motor pattern which has required to roll over.
And it essentially makes that movement not so scary
for your baby.
If you're gonna help a baby roll from their back
through their left side, onto their tummy,
how you would do that, is that you would grab their left leg
and hold gently and hold it straight.
And then with your other hand
you would place it on their right hip.
And then you would gently guide that right hip
so that it goes over the top
of the left leg and then over onto the ground,
so that they're rolled onto their tummy.
Once they're in that position you then might need
to reposition their hand,
because it often gets caught underneath their tummy.
As your baby gets stronger and start to participate actively
in rolling from their back to their tummy,
is you would slightly grade that activity.
So, when they're...
When you're rolling them from their back onto their tummy,
and again, let's use the example
of rolling through the left side onto their tummy.
What you would do is grab their leg gently
and gently straighten that left leg.
Then use your other hand to grab their hip.
And then you would gently raise that hip off the ground
and you might bring them into sideline,
which is when they're lying on their side.
And then you might stop there.
You would wait and see
if the baby would complete the rest of the roll.
If not, I would gently provide support to that hip.
So, I might start panicking in the hip
so that they will start to kind of tip over
and then they'll participate in that roll.
But as they get stronger and stronger and stronger
they'll start actively engage in that roll.
And they'll start to move through that movement for you.
Now, I would recommend doing that assisted roll
with your baby for a few reasons.
And that, as I mentioned before,
is to help them get familiar
with that motor pattern required to roll
from your back to your tummy.
But the other thing is it gives them lots of opportunity
to practice that movement.
And although your baby might not yet be able
to roll independently from their back to their tummy,
they might have the ability to do part of the movement.
So, helping them and assisting them to roll over means that
they can practice that part and strengthen those muscles.
Now, the second thing you can do
to teach your baby to roll over
is use a motivating toy to encourage them to roll over.
Now, what's really important
is the positioning of these toys.
So, as I said, right at the beginning,
learning to roll from your back to tummy
is all about following that head movement.
So, when you're holding a toy and I would say
at around the four month mark with your baby,
I would hold it directly above their body
in the middle of their body.
And I would shake that toy or I'd make a noise with that toy
so that the baby is then looking at the toy.
Once they're looking at the toy,
you then move the toy directly across past their eyes
and to the side.
What you want to do is as you're putting it to the side,
you wanna raise it up so it's above their shoulder.
And what that does is that when they look up at the toy,
it helps to promote that lifting of the shoulder
off the ground, and then the whole trunk rotation,
which is required to roll over.
Now, the third activity you can do with your baby,
which is going to work on developing
those underlying muscles that are required
to roll from their back to their tummy,
is encourage lots and lots of tummy time.
Now, I know we go on about it all the time
and that's because it's so important in learning to roll,
sit up and walk and stand
and all those gross motor activities.
What tummy time does is provide an opportunity
for your baby to work on that neck control
and head control and shoulder stability and strength
as well as that back, the strength of those back muscles,
which are all required for rolling.
Tummy times are really difficult activity
for your little one.
Make sure you check out my video on tummy time,
where I cover four different tummy time positions
and how you can make it easier.
So, your baby's going to enjoy it at first
and then we can make it harder as they get stronger.
And the fourth activity which you can do with your baby,
which is going to work on the underlying muscles required
to roll is encourage lots and lots of play,
when they're lying on the ground on their back.
Now, you can make it a bit more enjoyable for babies
by doing this play underneath the play gym,
because it essentially entertains the baby
and also encourages them to reach out
and engage with the toys.
What's great about this activity?
So, when they're lying on their back and playing
is that they start to kick their legs,
which essentially activates their tummy muscles
and provides an opportunity
to work on making those muscles stronger.
So, we know that tummy muscles are required to roll
from your back to your tummy.
So, this is another great activity
that you can do with your baby.
So, those are the four activities that you can do
with your baby right now
to work on the underlying muscles required
to roll from your back to your front.
And also how to teach them to roll
from their back to the front.
Make sure you click on that free PDF document
in the description box below and subscribe to this channel,
if you wanna make parenting significantly easier.
And hopefully I'll see you next week,
where I'll share more parenting tips and tricks.
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