When is a child considered to be walking?

[SummerBaby]

I know this sounds like a silly question, but my mom and I have been having this argument for the past 2 weeks. She says DD is walking, I say she's not. She will take about 5-6 independent steps, make it halfway across the room, and then crawl. She still crawls/cruises as her main mode of getting around. My mom says 3 steps is walking, I say it's when the child walks around a room without falling, and walks more than crawls.

What is the standard, anyway? Thanks!

Val
Mom to Madeline
7/28/04

[ribbit1019]

DD did this for a while.

I would say that she is taking steps, but not walking. Walking (to me) means that baby can walk independently and continuously throughout the room with out hanging onto anything and it is their primary way of getting around.

My DD often gets down and breaks into a crawl but I know that she can walk around unassisted and walking is the way she gets around on her own about 95% of the time.

Christy
Maddy born 06/09/04
http://lilypie.com/baby2/040609/3/4/0/-5/.png
Little Peanut due 03/02/06
http://bd.lilypie.com/K8fum4/.png

[MarisaSF]

Right now, she's a "stepper," but I'd give high odds to her being a "walker" by the end of next week!

The terminology is tricky, isn't it? I don't know when to put "walking" into the baby book!

Jazzy just switched over. We've gotta get this kid some shoes for outside.
DH made me tear up last night when he saw her walking. "What happened to our little baby?" he asked. :(

[alkagift]

The previous posters are probably right. I didn't think about it, though, I just said, "he's walking, he's walking" when he could make it 5 feet or so.

Allison
Mommy to Matthew, who is TWO!

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[brittone2]

From a therapist's standpoint, if we are evaluating a child it depends on what the evaluation tool specifies (there are many different evaluation tools/tests). That may be "walks without assistance 10 feet" for example.

In your daughter's case, I would say she's taking "independent steps" but I would not classify it as walking just yet. I also consider part of walking being able to start/stop with control.

It sounds like your DD is doing just fine. She'll be walking as her main means of mobility very soon I'm sure. She's perfectly on target from what you describe. DS took independent steps for a few weeks before he became a true "walker." He walked at 13.5 months.

[JBaxter]

I called it walking when they made it across the room.
Jeana

[Saartje]

I call it walking when they've made their first independent steps. Everything after that is movement along the continuum to walking all the time.

[amp]

Well, technically, she's taking steps, so she's walking, but I wouldn't call her a "walker" yet. I usually just told people that DS was just starting to walk or take steps. Most people understand that it rarely happens overnight!

[sarahsthreads]

We decided to call it walking the day Carrie chose to walk instead of crawl from one table to another halfway across the room, and did it without falling. She'd walk 5-6 steps from a table or couch to one of us and fall into our arms before that, but that was the first time she did it without prompting and with a controlled stop.

And she pretty much has chosen to walk more often than not since then, so I guess that was the turning point!

Sarah :)

[smilequeen]

My son is doing the same thing and I don't consider him a walker yet either, although when I said he took his first steps everyone made a big deal out of how he's a walker now. Well, he's been taking 2-3 steps at a time for a week and a half...no walker yet :) I think the way you do, when he walks around the room, then I'll consider him a walker.