How to teach a child to walk?
Last reviewed: 20.11.2021
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
This wonderful moment, when you learned that you will have a child, he is so happy and inspiring. But only a little time passes and your baby is already trying to move, crawl and ... May not be able to take the first steps. So, how to teach a child to walk?
The first steps of the child
The child can try to make the first steps, already starting from 9-11 months of his entertaining and colorful life. Do not have time to look back, as he will already begin to check the shelves with such interesting documents for him, business cards, jars, medicines and so on. For a crumb in this period of life you need to especially monitor and hide all the stabbing, cutting, traumatic objects, medicines and important things for you, which the child is still too early to learn.
The child before the attempts to walk independently is carefully preparing for this event. At first the kid tries to sit, get up, standing for something, pushing all four limbs, and very happy if something comes out, and he tries hard. Children aged 9-11 months move around, holding onto a bed, chairs and everything that comes across them on the way, still attempting to walk, pushing a wheelchair or something that is convenient to get.
Dad and Mom invite
At the age of 11-12 months, children can freely migrate to their room, just a short distance. At this time, the baby should be tried to lure from mom to dad, so that his leg muscles, back muscles develop, and the child gets better coordination. Your child will be happy to go to mom or dad in turn, while laughing loudly. If you are interested in this crumb and support his morale, the spirit of the warrior, he will quickly learn to walk.
Beginning at the age of 14 months, children are able to stand upright and confidently from the standpoint of lying down and ply as if an icebreaker in the room, overcoming obstacles encountered on the way, climbing on high chairs or a sofa, while insanely rejoicing in their ability.
A few rules for parents
Dear parents, you can help your child to comprehend this difficult, but very entertaining craft - walking. To do this, you just need to master a few very simple, but useful rules.
Physiology of the baby
Of course, you insanely want your baby to go as soon as possible, you are trying in every possible way to interest him and help, but not everything is so simple. Do not force your baby to move faster. In young children, the musculoskeletal system is rather slowly formed, so too much load for the child will not be useful.
First, the child needs to prepare for what awaits him in the future. Your child first needs to crawl pretty much before learning to walk. While the baby is crawling, all the basic muscles develop in order to prepare for confident walking. Crawling, your baby will improve his locomotor system. Another important factor when teaching a child to walk. Walking takes away a lot of energy from the baby, the baby is exhausted and tired of heavy loads, therefore it is undesirable to force the baby to walk when he has not yet learned to crawl.
The driving force is interest
A very important moment in the process of teaching a kid something is his interest in learning. If, for example, your baby crawls on all fours, then you have a wonderful opportunity at this time to show the child something very interesting, and this object should be near, but slightly above eye level. After the child rises to the legs, take the object somewhere a little further and put it down so that the baby is interested to get to it and grab it.
You can help the kid learn walking in a wonderful way - make for him a special path with handrails, so that the baby can move around the room in which he is without help. Then your child will hold on to the pads for support, and go wherever he wants. In this case, you will have much more free time.
Path for the baby
You can make a similar path for the child from what you have in the house, for example, building a row of chairs to the child to go and hold on to them. Excellent fit chairs or sofa. Over time, the baby will be able to walk more confidently, then it will be necessary to slightly increase the distance between the objects for which he holds, so that the steps of the baby are wider and a step sure.
At a time when your child is trying to make his first steps - support him and avoid the probabilities of falls, injuries. Little children fall very often, and then they also cry for a long time. Why You Need It? It also happens that children, after frequent falls, no longer want to walk, because they were very comfortable crawling, and even painful. Avoid the fall, or, at least, minimize them necessarily.
More often praise your child for learning to walk. Your baby will rejoice and try to learn how to walk quickly, so that he will be praised further. You yourself will not notice how your child will already walk alone and without problems.
Imitation
Kids love to imitate their peers and adults. In order for your child to quickly learn to walk - go out with him as often as possible in public places, where children and adults are walking. Such places can be parks, playgrounds, children's "game-worlds," and just a street. When a child looks at jogging and jumping children, fast-moving adults, he will also want to learn how to walk. An excellent way to follow is an example when you say something like: "look at how the girl runs", "the dog runs", "the cat runs", the boy ran so quickly, let's follow him. "
Independence of your baby
Parents are not advised to use baby walkers to ensure that your child learns to walk. If a child is too close to a walker, he simply refuses to walk alone. Children are not very difficult to master walkers, but walking very very difficult, because the child does not want to move independently.
Also, it is not recommended to take a child too long or often, keeping him under his arms so that he walks in this way. Because of this learning by walking, children may suffer from incorrect posture, deformation of the feet or, which is also very important, a shift in the center of gravity.
The most excellent option for supporting a child is nothing else than reins. The child will simply roll them in front of him, and you can hold him at that time, neatly, behind the hood. The main thing is for the child to walk more or less independently, not strongly bend forward and do not hang around during your adherence.
Stroller
Try to make sure that the child is in the wheelchair for a minimum of time. As soon as you get to her destination, immediately release the child to play independently. What would he be able to develop, run and jump. In this case, your child will learn to walk fast.