brittone2 (or others) ? about skipping crawling

My Forrest did not crawl until after he learned to walk, right at a year. Now he's running, LOL! He rolled and "swam" using his head to pivot to get to something he could pull up on, then cruised. He could cruise all around the house by holding the walls and sidiling, like SpiderBoy, from about 10.5 months. Now, at 16months, he crawls around playing with toys, and loves crawling in and out of cabinets and big cardboard boxes. My DH never crawled either, and was a voracious reader in childhood (still is), and graduated #2 in our med school class!

We thought Mari was going to skip crawling; our pediatrician thought so too and he wasn't concerned. He said it's not even considered a major milestone.

But, right about 10 months (like a week and a half ago) she suddenly started doing it. It was almost out of the blue. Until then she would just roll to wherever she wanted to go. LOL. She also LOVED LOVED to stand and cruise along the furniture and would pitch a fit if we tried to make her have tummy time.

Well, now she is crawling everywhere (Beth can attest to this as she caught her crawling under the picnic table this weekend and handed her off to us to dig her findings out from her chipmunk cheeks lol).

She is pulling on anything to stand up; she tried Logan! She can go from sitting/standing/crawling on her own. She isn't walking independently yet.

So, you never know what will happen. I will admit that the past week has been totally crazy here as we were not ready for her sudden skill development and the gates I ordered haven't arrived yet!

Holli

Heeehheee....Holli is right...Mari is motoring!!! I was impressed!! Yep, Mari and Logan met up this weekend and had a good time! :)

For anyone concerned about their kids skipping crawling, I'd just encourage it through games as they get older. Even after they are able to walk, they can often be persuaded to crawl to imitate various animals, crawl under things (like Mari going under the table!), through things (like tunnels), under mom and dad's legs, etc.

Most kids do some form of crawling while playing even after they become walkers in my experience. There are still benefits to it even then :) In most cases I'd say it is nothing to worry about, but if you are concerned, encouraging crawling through games/play is always an option.

PM'd you about PT and the job market. Overall things are pretty good. As the PP mentioned, the DPT is sort of controversial. The actual education isn't much different from a master's degree....they basically just decided to change what they called the degree. For most people w/ a master's, a DPT would be attainable by taking 3 courses or so (at least, that is what my alma mater would require). Right now the pay is essentially the same no matter what degree you have.

As the PP mentioned, the DPT is basically set to put us on par w/ chiropractors from a reimbursement perspective as the professional aspects of our education are similarly rigorous. Most people don't realize what sort of rigorous education a PT degree involves, and the powers that be think the DPT will better reflect that.

When I was in school (96-01) our dept. head at the time assured us there would be NO jobs for us as medicare went through some rough changes. She basically told us to forget making any $$ at all. Lovely. She was of course wrong. Like all things, PT goes through its cycles. I had multiple job offers when I graduated and there are always jobs available in the areas I've lived.

I'm a bit out of touch w/ the rest of the profession (pertaining to geriatrics, medicare, etc.) as I worked in pediatrics before DS was born but in that field employment is very strong as there aren't many PTAs (assistants) working in pediatrics and a lot of pediatrics is 1-on-1. But overall I think the market is strong. As the DPT becomes more prevalent though, I think a lot of people are going to shy away from PT as a profession. The time committment and financial expense of a 7 year education are just a LOT considering the salary (which is good but not outstanding). I know the number of applicants to the program I attended went from a huge number to a much much smaller number by the time I graduated. I'm sure part of that is the boom in nursing as well...

I'm glad your sister loves PT school. It certainly is stressful and hectic, but hopefully she'll love the profession. Let me know if she needs any advice, or has any questions about jobs, etc. particularly specific to PA. :)