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Babies with crawling experience better at handling heights, experts say.

By on December 10, 2020

Parents always keep an eye on their walking toddlers to catch them when they fall.  But did you know that babies as young as 12 months old naturally become aware of avoiding heights?

A group of researchers from Doshisha University in Kyoto and the University of California, Berkeley,  tested about 50 12-month old and 18-month old toddlers and grouped them into 3: experienced crawlers, new walkers, and experienced walkers. The babies were assigned “safe” and “risky” drop-offs to gauge each group’s reaction.

Researchers used a 90-cm high virtual cliff (without safety glass) and a back-up rescue for when they fall, recording every movement – whether they tried to crawl or walk down the drop-off, avoided going at all, or used alternative ways.

According to the record of how each responded, the group of experienced crawlers tried to crawl down safe drop-offs refusing to crawl down drop-offs that were risky. This indicates a fear of heights is likely a result of their locomotor or crawling experience.

The new walkers attempted to walk down drop-offs  including the 90-cm cliff which shows they are unable to perceive their own abilities and limits and tell what’s safe from risky ground. Experienced walkers avoided risky drop-offs, but did go down using other strategies showing they weren’t afraid.

The researchers trained the babies to control a motorized baby go-cart on their own. The findings suggest babies’s  ability to avoid heights develop when they get more experience crawling and navigating their environment on their own.

After this period, the researchers watched how the babies reacted when they were held over a glass-covered edge. The infants who had experience with the go-cart got skittish around this virtual cliff. Their heart rates beat faster, while those of babies without the driving lessons remained steady, the scientists found.

The researchers also tested how these babies reacted to a so-called moving room, an enclosure where the walls move backwards and make whoever is inside feel like he or she is moving forward. The babies who had learned how to use a go-cart were more upset by this illusion.

In another part of the experiment, the researchers tested babies who had already started to crawl. The ones who were most upset by the moving room were also more afraid to crawl over a glass-covered virtual edge, even as their mothers encouraged them from the other side.

This finding suggests that as infants gain locomotor experience (in this case, crawling or navigating a go-cart), they come to rely more on visual information to help them move though an environment.

The results also indicate that a fear of heights is not likely a hard-wired developmental change, but rather a shift that depends on experience, the researchers say.

Being able to avoid heights has an obvious advantage: It keeps infants from falling and getting injured. So why doesn’t it kick in before babies start crawling?

“One major benefit of such a delay is that infants are more prone to explore their environment and the movement possibilities afforded by that environment when they are less concerned about the consequences of their actions,” the researchers write in the journal Psychological Science.

This lack of fear helps them develop movement strategies and learn how to navigate different types of surfaces, the scientists say.

“Paradoxically, a tendency to explore risky situations may be one of the driving forces behind skill development,” the researchers add.

 

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