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What happens when we help our child start walking? ?

Anat Furstenberg

By Anat Furstenberg

BabyPillars·3 min read

What happens when we help our child start walking?  ?

ecoKey Takeaways

  • check_circleAssisted Walking Is Not Independent Walking: When you hold your baby's hands and walk them around, they are walking with your balance -- not their own. True independent walking only develops when your baby learns to balance themselves through their own movement experience.
  • check_circleBalance Is the Real Issue: When walking is delayed, the root cause is almost always an immature balancing system. This often traces back to earlier milestones -- like tummy time, rolling, and sitting -- that provide the foundational balance development walking requires.
  • check_circleEarlier Milestones Must Come First: Skills like lifting the head during tummy time, rolling over, keeping the head at the midline, and sitting independently are not optional steps -- they are the building blocks that teach your baby to organize their body for walking.
  • check_circleCheck Whose Desire It Really Is: Ask yourself honestly -- is your baby reaching for walking, or is it you who wants them to walk? Parents often interpret their own wish as their baby's readiness, and pushing walking too early can actually interfere with your baby building the balance they need.
  • check_circleCreate the Environment, Not the Movement: Your job is not to physically teach your baby to walk, but to create an environment rich in floor time, movement, and earlier-stage play that naturally stimulates the developmental sequence leading to independent, confident first steps.

What happens when we help our child to start walking?

Many infants reach the walking stage and just linger at this stage.
In this stage many parents ask, What happens when we help our child to start walking?, when this will pass and how it is possible to help walking or even promote walking. When we help our child to walk, he does walk, but not on his own, but with our lead.

Walking is supposed to happen independently, from experience of many years I have learned that when walking is not developing independently, it is because of the balancing system.

Our baby balancing system has not yet developed properly, and therefore our baby balancing ability is not yet mature.
This is due to the non-realization of some of the developmental milestones that were supposed to take place from the first months of life, such as:
lying on the stomach and lifting the head, rollovers, balance and movement between the two sides, keeping the head in the center line of the body, sitting properly, standing, and more.

When our baby does these processes on his own, Independently, he learns to balance himself, organize his head in the midline, use his hands and feet correctly and then stand up.
From there he begins to take his first steps on his own and learns his own balance and posture.
So, what do you do when your baby just "wants" to go? Just “wants” to stand up.
The question here is who does the wishing come from you or your baby.

I think in many cases the desire is of the parent and the interpretation is that my baby just "wants" to go.
Try to pay attention to whether it is more you or your baby. You can do a lot of one-on-one time together that will make you and your baby enjoy his development and not necessarily walking.
It is also possible to occasionally lend a hand, but not to make it a routine.

child start walking with dad

Our job as parents is not to help or encourage our children to develop, but to create for them an environment that will stimuli their development and that will help them develop the skills they need to go through all the stages of development, and help your child start walking.

In conclusion, when you give a child a hand, he trusts someone else and not himself. Therefore, I highly recommend parents to be very patient and make sure that the first stages of development have been taken place and properly, if not, repeat them through exercises and games. After your baby incorporates healthy and proper development base, he will start walking independently and securely.

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