Taking a stand against rushed development

I was disturbed to see the news story regarding a six-month-old baby who was standing up and ready for walking, featured on GMTV and in various newspapers (Mediawatch, 8 March). Crawling is a crucial stage of development for babies and essential for developing and stimulating the neural pathways in both the left- and right-hand side of the brain. Indeed, it is essential for hand-to-eye co-ordination, which is all linked to reading, writing and balance later on in the child's development. It can sometimes happen that babies who don't crawl can have a tendency to be clumsy and not as well...