Learning to walk
Walking for the first time is one of the most exciting and memorable milestones in your child's development. Your baby has actually been preparing to walk from an early age and now all the rolling, sitting up, bottom shuffling, crawling, furniture cruising and standing culminates in your baby's newest adventure - first steps.
Babies usually start walking sometime between 8 and 18 months old. Before walking, babies will usually have been crawling (between 6 and 13 months) and pulling themselves up to stand (usually between ages 9 and 12 months).
How walking develops
To walk, your baby needs to have many skills, including balance, coordination, standing up and being able to support their body weight from one leg to the other.
Each new skill your baby develops builds on the previous skills your baby has learnt.
As your baby gets older, the skills they learn get more and more complex.
While your baby was busy crawling and pulling up to stand, then cruising between pieces of furniture, they were building valuable muscle strength and skills like balance and coordination, which are all needed for walking and, later, running.
Other areas of development
While walking is an exciting milestone, it's important to remember that there's a lot happening for your baby around this time. Your baby is also developing new communication and thinking skills (for example, first words) and learning to handle new emotions such as coping with separating from you and dealing with strangers. And once your baby is up and walking, they have a whole new view of their world and the people in it to take in and try to make sense of.
What you can do
Here are some things you can do to help your baby with walking include:
- Play together — being with or near your child when they explore helps them feel safe and builds their confidence.
- Encourage moving — being active and moving around builds your child's muscle strength and posture, which helps your child get better at walking and prepares them for running.
- Make your home safe — as your baby starts to move around the house more, keeping the area around them clear ensures there are no accidents and creates lots of opportunities to walk and explore.
- Avoid baby walkers — these do not help your baby learn to walk and can actually delay development of walking skills. They also cause thousands of injuries every year in Australia.
Getting help
If your baby is 18 months or older and isn't walking on their own yet, or if you're concerned about any areas of your baby's development, contact your local doctor or child and family health nurse for advice.
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