Winter Babies Learn to Crawl Earlier

In a peculiar study of the season's effects on developing children, researchers discovered that children born in the winter months learn to crawl earlier in their lives than babies born in the Summer.

Experts have long known that many adults behave different in winter months, in part because they are seeing less sunlight, and partially because of the stressful nature of that time of the year. However, it is rarely considered how these months can affect young children, both in the womb and out.

Now, a new study recently conducted by researchers at the University of Haifa has found that babies born in winter months actually begin to craw about five weeks earlier than babies born during summer months, indicating that the seasons somehow impact large motor development.

Researchers Osnat Atun-Einy, Dina Cohen, Moran Samuel, and Anat Scher used the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS), an observational assessment guide with high reliability, to track the development for 47 newborns.

The AIMS system helped them track the babies' motor development in four stages: prone (stomach), supine (back), sitting and standing.

Overall, the average age the subjects began to crawl was 31 weeks. However, the babies born between December and May (winter babies) began crawling only 30 weeks in, on average. Most children born between June and November (summer) started crawling five week later than that.

Interestingly, there was no difference among the two groups for scores in the supine position, sitting or standing.

 According to the researchers, the findings strengthen the assumption that seasonal changes affect infant growth. However, it remains unclear if the cause of this change occurs in the womb - potentially influenced by parent stress and vitamin D levels  - or after birth.

Nature World News previously reported how it has been found that most left handed people in the world are also winter babies, suggesting that exposure to increased levels of sunlight while pregnant may raise testosterone levels in women, which in-turn can influence brain development and eventual handedness of a child.

In the case of large motor development, a similar effect may be occurring. However, that all remains purely speculation.