On 9 Jul 2011 at 11:19, Carol DeVolder wrote: > A student recently e-mailed me and asked a question that I can't > answer. He wrote that his mother adamantly claims there is a strong > correlation between infants' crawling and their eventual reading > ability and he says their isn't. He said he has done some searching of > the literature and has found nothing and asked if I know of any > evidence to which he could turn
This sounds suspiciously like a quack theory of child development popular in the 1970's, sometimes called "patterning" or Doman- Delecato training. The idea was that children require a certain amount of crawling in order to develop neurologically, and if they don't, will be thoroughly screwed up. Or if they are already impaired, through brain damage, mental retardation, Down syndrome, dyslexia, etc., they may be helped by attention to a presumed deficit in crawling (or something like that--we're talking quackery, so it doesn't have to make sense). The treatment is a demanding training programme in which the child is subjected to various exercises involving crawling. The treatment, of course, is expensive. It also required the assistance of a contingent of well-meaning but deluded neighbours, who volunteered to help carry out its extensive requirements. This page ( http://tinyurl.com/3zfqx3g ) provides a proponent's view. Note the claimed association between lack of crawling and later reading problems. Debunking is here: http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/patterning.html As for evidence, don't make me laugh. You might want to take a look at what the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) had to say about this "treatment" back in 1999, here: http://tinyurl.com/4yypdjz I see from its reference list that # 18 is a book by Doman, the originator of this harmful nonsense, called "How to teach your baby to read", # 32 is "The Diagnosis and Treatment of Speech and Reading Problems", by Doman's associate, Delecato, also # 33, "Neurological Organization and Reading". The AAP also cite some presumably debunking work by Robbins (#37 and # 38) on the relation between Doman-Delecato patterning treamtent and reading. So if would not surprise me if the alleged correlation between crawling and reading ability originated in their crackpot writings. Stephen -------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada e-mail: sblack at ubishops.ca --------------------------------------------- --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=11363 or send a blank email to leave-11363-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
