Developmental Milestones and Learning to Walk

Most parents are aware of gross motor milestones and may even be able to recall certain timelines that their little one should be mastering certain skills, but do you understand why it’s so important for an infant to successfully perform these skills? Many times, learning one skill leads to the ability to perform the following activity. These abilities then compound on one another and eventually lead to more advanced skills. For instance, if your child is having difficulty learning to walk, it may be because they have not fully mastered one of the prior milestones.

Key developmental milestones in infancy:

• Prone play

• Rolling

• Sitting

• Army crawling

• Crawling on hands and knees

• Standing

Each of these milestones plays a role in helping a child gain the skills needed to walk. Here is why each of them is so important!

Prone Play

• Prone describes the position when your child is lying on their stomach. This is often referred to as “tummy time” and can be implemented as soon as they come home from the hospital. The prone position is important for gaining neck and back strength. This ultimately leads to head and postural control which will be needed for each of the subsequent milestones.

Rolling

• Rolling is the first transitional skill on the list, meaning this is the first activity that helps your baby move around! It can occur from tummy to back (around 4 months) and from back to tummy (around 6 months). Rolling strengthens the entire body, especially the core and hips. This will be particularly important as your baby starts to learn to sit and eventually begins to stand and walk because our core is an important contributor to balance.

Sitting

• Sitting is the first milestone that occurs in an upright position and mimics the position your child will be in while standing and walking. Since they are now upright, they are now beginning to bear weight through their spine, which they will also have to be able to do when in other upright positions. Sitting also further builds on the core and postural strength that your baby has already started to develop through earlier milestones, which is why sitting is also extremely important for developing the balance needed to stand and walk.

Army Crawling

• Army crawling describes when an infant moves on their stomach using their arms and legs to propel themselves forward. This activity helps a baby learn to coordinate both sides of their body. It also helps with developing the strength needed in their arms and legs to be able to perform later skills.

Crawling on Hands and Knees

• Crawling is important for a child to learn how to reciprocally move their limbs, which is a skill that will be needed later for walking. It also helps with further strengthening their core muscles, leading to even greater postural stability. This also provides weight-bearing through the child’s legs which will prepare them for bearing even more weight when standing.

Standing

• Standing is the direct precursor to walking. It is obviously very important for a child to obtain this skill prior to walking, but why exactly? Standing requires weight bearing through their entire lower body and spine and prepares them for the changes in weight-bearing that occur when walking. It also further builds on the core strength obtained through earlier milestones and applies it to the exact position required for walking. Through building core strength, becoming more familiar with how it feels to be upright, and learning more about their body’s position in space, a child develops the reactions necessary for being able to maintain their balance while walking as their base of support changes rapidly.

Skipping any of these milestones could potentially be detrimental to your child’s development. Luckily, physical therapists are movement experts who will be able to determine the exact cause of any potential delays and help them catch up as well as prevent any further delays.

If your baby is having trouble with walking or any other gross motor skills, reach out to your pediatrician to request a referral for a physical therapy evaluation!

Tags: #chatterboxpediatrictherapy|#chatterboxpeds|#children|#pediatricblog|#pediatricphysicaltherapy

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