Here are some general tips for helping your baby at this stage: You can help most by providing a supporting physical and social setting and opportunities to practice walking. What can I do to help my baby learn to walk? They may walk in different directions, on different surfaces and while carrying large toys. They’ll keep on practicing and experimenting to improve their walking skills. All these activities also help strengthen their muscles and balance. They may move from sitting to standing and back again, walking, and then squatting to play. They may experiment with moving from the floor to standing then back down again. Once your baby starts to walk, they continue this process. They were also developing skills like balance and coordination, which are all needed for walking and, later, running. While your baby was busy crawling and pulling up to stand, then cruising between pieces of furniture, they were building muscle strength. As your baby gets older, the skills they learn get more and more complex. To walk, your baby needs to have developed many skills, including balance, coordination, standing up and being able to shift their body weight from one leg to the other.Įach new skill your baby develops builds on the previous skills your baby has learnt. Before walking, babies will usually have been crawling (between 7 and 12 months) and pulling themselves up to stand (usually between ages 9 and 12 months). Now all the rolling, sitting up, bottom shuffling, crawling, furniture cruising and standing culminates in your baby's newest adventure: first steps.īabies usually start walking sometime between about 10 and 18 months old. Your baby has been preparing to walk from an early age. Walking for the first time is one of the many exciting and memorable milestones in your child's development. Related information on Australian websites.What can I do to help my baby learn to walk?.How does my baby develop walking skills?.You can help your baby by providing a safe environment for early walking, giving lots of playtime and encouraging your baby to move around independently and experiment.Activities such as crawling and pulling themselves up to stand help your baby develop muscle strength and balance for walking.Babies usually start walking sometime between about 10 and 18 months old.

My first five years