Once your child has mastered the art of crawling, scooting, rolling, or creeping and is able to move around your home quickly and efficiently, you may ask yourself what to do next to encourage your child to stand up and walk around. This article aims to identify ways to increase participation and engagement of your child in activities such as standing and walking independently.
First, let’s start with what is normal.
As reported by the Cleveland Clinic, most children can begin to walk as early as 9 months old or as late as 17-18 months of age.1 There are many factors that go into the initiation of walking in infants. One factor is their core strength and confidence in ability to stand upright. Another factor is their lower extremity strength to hold their body up appropriately. Finally, balance is another key factor to allow for them to not only hold their body upright while in motion, but also to improve their ability to safely stand on one foot while transitioning each leg in front of the other. Proper balance, lower extremity strength, core strength, and coordination contribute to proper gait mechanics and help your infant to navigate obstacles in their environment safely while learning to walk.
How do I know if my child is ready to start walking?
The biggest behaviors to look out for as your child starts to approach the age of 9-12 months include the following:
- Pulling to stand
- Cruising on furniture around the house
- Standing independently
These behaviors indicate that your child is starting to try to explore their environment and is getting ready to walk. Once you see these behaviors you should capitalize on their curiosity and start to place toys and other familiar and frequently used items in varying locations around the house to help them to explore and keep working on their strength to promote the ability to walk. We’ll get into that in more depth later on.
What are some of the reasons for delayed walking?
Similar to the way that there are many factors to a toddler’s ability and readiness to start walking, there are many factors that may delay a child from walking. One of which is preference for other methods of mobility that are quicker or easier for them to perform such as crawling or bottom scooting. Another possible factor that delays walking is “W sitting” which has been shown to cause delays in gross and fine motor development. Literature also states that the use of baby-walkers or bouncers can delay walking in infants due to the change in muscle recruitment pattern utilized when walking in one. 2
So, what can I do to help encourage my child to walk more comfortably?
There are many ways to help encourage your child to get up and walking. You can start by offering them a hand or placing their favorite toys a little further back on the couch or coffee table, requiring them to pull to stand up and remain standing to play with them. You can set up toys along a surface to encourage them to cruise along the furniture to play with the toys or get to you. As they get better at this you can even space two surfaces out a little, so they are required to let go with one hand to step over to the other surface and decrease their reliance on external support. You can also place toys and other frequently used items at varying levels of surfaces around the house to promote their ability to squat down and pick items up as well as reaching up overhead.
Once he or she is able to cruise and stand independently you can begin to work on ways to get them to take a couple steps, whether this is with trunk support provided by you or holding onto a rolling push toy. As mentioned above, avoid using baby walkers and bouncers to get your child walking. Push toys provide some stability for the child as they learn how to advance each leg. When they are first starting out you may want to hold on to the toy to prevent it from tipping, as they are leaning their full body weight on it while they move.
After your child has gotten the hang of cruising on furniture and walking with trunk support from you or a push toy, begin to use a toy to allow them to pull to stand and then take a small step away from them as they hold on to the toy to encourage them to take a step forward. You can also sit further away from them and allow them to pull to stand and then call them to walk forward to you. You will want to continue to use toys and toy placement around the home to work on their ability to navigate obstacles and work on their balance and leg strength. You should use a shiny or noisy toy to focus their attention on which will entice your child to walk forward. For some of those more advanced walkers, you can even provide them with something to hold in their hands to help them work on balance and the ability to walk without support from the upper limbs.
Reminder parents, as toddlers are learning to walk they often fall, which is normal and how they learn. It is important that you do not freak out and instead calmly make sure they are uninjured and get them back up to try again. As long as you do not freak out, they will handle falls well and will continue to be successful!
If you have any concerns or need help figuring out how to support your infant through these milestones, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at DeePT!
Written by: Jenn Choate, PT, DPT
References:
- Cleveland Clinic. When Do Babies Start Walking? Cleveland Clinic. Published July 22, 2021. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/when-do-babies-start-walking/
- Common Areas of Concern: Delayed Walking. NHS GGC. Published March 1, 2021. https://www.nhsggc.org.uk/kids/healthcare-professionals/paediatric-physiotherapy/early-years/common-areas-of-concern/
- Health Tips | 5 Ways To Increase Physical Activity for Infants and Toddlers. Choose PT. Published November 3, 2020. https://www.choosept.com/health-tips/5-ways-increase-physical-activity-infants-toddlers