When do Babies start Walking?
[mme_highlight] Most children can walk well by 15 months. In the weeks prior to independent walking parents can observe their child showing transient upright skills. When infants start their first steps, being without shoes can help refine the coordination and balance. Walkers should be avoided as they can be at harmful. [/mme_highlight]
In the weeks prior to independent walking parents can observe their child showing transient upright skills: children hold to furniture to acquire and sustain an upright position and hold parents’ hand or to furniture to make steps forward. Note that furniture or parents compensate for the missing levels of leg strength and balance control.
The main milestones in infant’s motor development are:
- Sitting, at approximately 6 months.
- Hands and Knees Crawling, at 8,5 months.
- Walking, at 12 months.
From Cruising to Walking
Cruising is a term used to describe the sideways movement when babies hold to furniture. This “pre-walking” way of locomotion is important because helps strengthen legs and create a notion of balance and coordination, also improving the security for the further achievement of independent walking. Researchers assume that there is a functional continuous from cruising to walking, since both involve locomotion in an upright posture.
There is consensus implying that there are two major factors essential for walking in children: acquisition of leg strength and control of balance. It is easy to understand that infants cannot walk before they can sustain body weight and keep the balance on one leg while the other goes forward to make a step.
Learning from falling?
Yes, walkers fall. Investigations estimate that, on average, 14-month-olds can fall 0 to 12 times in only 16 min of free play and 0 to 14 times during a short walk around a city block. However, most of these falls are not serious enough to need medical assistance, despite being one of the leading causes for accidental injury in children under five years.
Do not worry, because researchers think that learning from falling can be an impetus to control locomotion. It is believed that the experience of falling or of the near falls instigates awareness and can serve as a stimulus for adaptative avoidance.
What can I do to help my child walk?
You can stimulate your child by positioning in front of him with your arms open and encourage him to walk in your direction. When infants start their first steps, being without shoes can help refine the coordination and balance.
Walkers should be avoided as they can be at harmful various levels: they can impair legs muscles from strengthen and they can turn leading to a fall that may be dangerous.
When should I be worried?
There is a normal variation within the above milestones, but in the end most children can walk well by 15 months, while some children walk later, at around 18 months. You can expect a 3-year-old to walk, stand, run and jump but some actions like standing on tiptoes or only on one leg can take longer to refine.
The evaluation and surveillance of the motor development and the gait is part of the routine of the general practice doctor or pediatrician. Yet, if you think you have concerns in this field, do not hesitate in searching for medical assistance. Bear in mind that sudden alterations in gait, coordination and balance or if your children looses any already acquired motor skill you should seek medical advice.
Summary and Recommendations
- Cruising is considered as a pre-walking phase in which children walk holding to furniture.
- If your child has recently started walking, falls will occur. Specialists believe that minor falls can indeed be a stimulus for confident walk.
- Parents should encourage children to walk by positioning in front of them. In the first walking attempts, children should be without shoes.
- Walkers should not be used, as they impair muscle development and can result in dangerous falls.
- Most children walk well by months of age.
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References
- Karen EA, Sarah EB, Andrew JL. Developmental Continuity? Crawling, Cruising, and Walking. Dev Sci. 2011 March ; 14(2): 306–318.
- Frankenburg, WK.; Dodds, J.; Archer, P.; Bresnick, B.; Maschka, P.; Edelman, N., et al. Denver II Sceening Manual. Denver Developmental Materials, Inc.; Denver, CO: 1992.
- Amy SJ, Karen EA. Learning from falling. Child Development, January/February 2006, Volume 77, Number 1, Pages 89 – 102.
- National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, C. D. C. (2003). Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS).
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