Learning to Walk

I’m Kirsty Brocklehurst and I’m a Children’s Physiotherapist and I’m Sally Hillis-Davis and I’m a Children’s Occupational Therapist and we are the Practical Child. We’re going to be sharing some common issues around child development and our top tips for how you can help. How to support your child when they’re learning to walk. For this, my top tip would be about how you support your arms.

Commonly, we all hold a children’s arms up in the air when they’re learning to walk, but actually this makes it really hard for them to learn how to balance and also how to use their core tummy muscles which they need to develop themselves for walking.

So actually, allow your child’s arms to rest down by their side and then just gently cut underneath therefore and support them this way. That way they can use their tummy muscles and they can also practice balancing while you’re just giving them that little bit of support that they need to practice learning to walk. However, when you do this just be mindful of your own back posture as you will probably need to be stepping able or try to be navy on your knees as you’re supporting them.