Hi, and welcome to another video in the Learning to roll video series. 

My name is Sam and I’m a pediatric physiotherapist with Alberta Health Services. 

In this video, you’re gonna to learn ways to help your baby start rolling from their tummy to their back.  

Many babies will learn to roll first from their tummy to their back. 

It requires less back and neck strength than rolling from their back to their tummy. 

When your baby first rolls from their tummy to their back, it’s often by accident. 

They end up pushing up high onto their arms and lift their head. 

As they turn their head to look at something, they accidently roll over. 

The rest of their body follows their head and arm movement.  

Another thing you can do instead of just lifting your baby up when they are laying on their tummy, is helping them roll onto their back first. 

This helps them learn how it feels and how to move. 

You can do this by bringing one arm out of the way. 

Then start to roll them gently by guiding one hip backwards until your baby is lying on their side. 

You can also encourage them to look up towards you. 

Slowly continue to guide the hip backwards until your baby is on their back. 

Often once they are part way over, they can complete the roll by themselves. 

As your baby becomes stronger and can push up on their forearms and hold their head upright, they will become more interested in looking at toys or a parent’s face. 

They may start to use small movements to shift their weight over one arm and roll onto their back. 

A great way to practice is by encouraging your baby to reach for a toy in front of them. 

Once they can do this, move the toy slowly overhead and to the side. 

This helps them try and follow it with their hand. 

As they do this, they will lift and turn their head to look at the toy. 

This is often enough to help get them rolling onto their back.  

It's important to practice rolling from tummy to back over both their right and left sides. 

Once your baby is rolling from their tummy to their back, you can watch the learning to roll from back to tummy video for more ideas to help your baby. 

Find information, support, and services for you and your child by clicking on the link in the description.​