I Play and Learn to Walk

Materials You Need: Favourite toys or handmade toys, pillows, soft furniture, boxes.

What You Can Do Together: Arrange the furniture so that the child can move around the room and walk between individual soft pieces of furniture while holding on to the pieces of furniture. This encourages maintaining balance while walking. To encourage the child to take the first steps, when he is in a standing position and facing another person, encourage him to step towards that other person who is calling him holding a favourite toy or other objects (sometimes the person himself is a sufficient motive).

Children enjoy toys that are pushed and pulled. If you don't already have one, make a simple toy that is pulled by passing a piece of wool or a thicker knitting thread or a soft rope (about 60 cm long) through a box or a thread spool. Tie a ball or a plastic string at the other end to serve as a handle. 

A large box can be a great place to sit and play. Children love to use large packaging as new small spaces in which they can fit and enjoy. Encourage the child to enter, get out of the box, or to sit in it... Make a bridge or a tunnel out of the box so that he can pass through it to the other side, where you or your favourite toy are waiting for him.
Create terrain with some obstacles in the room with the help of boxes, small mats, pillows or pieces of soft furniture so that the child can move to overcome those obstacles, to roll over or to cross them, go under and through them.

The child learns that different toys "do" different things. Let him play with a variety of things that he can roll, push, pull, hug, shake, press, turn, stack, spin and mix. Most children enjoy listening to music. Encourage the child to move forward, around and backwards with the music, because that is how he exercises balance. If necessary, help him by holding his hands. All of this supports his new walking skills.

What Your Child is Learning: This activity helps your child learn to move independently in different directions, at different speeds or combine different movements (to stop moving and wave). He is so motivated to master this skill that he will expect you to dedicate every free moment of your life to support him in mastering this so important life function. Please do create the environment he is looking for!