My nineteen-month-old niece Bean can walk – she’s been able to since she was nine months old! Tonight, though, she decided to go back to crawling – not baby crawling but crawling aunty-style.

We’d been playing in her room on the first floor of her home, and when it was time for me to go I crawled to the stairs on my knees. She followed me, copying the way I move very precisely. We all thought this was very sweet.

I enjoy seeing how attentive and curious Bean is about the world around her – she’s always ready to experiment and try new things. This is a quality that many children have and means that they’re often much more open and confident around disability than adults are.

I’m trying hard to nurture Bean’s curiosity and help her understand the wonderful diversity or our bodies and our world. At this stage this means crawling about, bumping down stairs on our bottoms and whizzing along on wheels.

It also leads to lots of laughter and I really hope this joyful experimentation can continue for many more years.