Infant Development: The Walker

So now things get really interesting. Your crawler and stander is about to be mobile on two feet!

Marianne Hermsen-Van Wanrooy makes an interesting point I don’t recall from when my son was learning to walk. On page 62 of her book, “Baby Moves,” she states:

“Initially, he may go up on his toes when standing. But be aware that this is another form of muscle imbalance that your baby will need to get under control. Do not encourage him in any way to start to walk, not even cruising along the furniture, as he will first need to sort out the balance between flexors and extensors and go down on flat feet.” 

She goes on to state that once baby is flat footed, allow him to cruise along furniture for as long as he would like as this is an important developmental stage. He’ll be able to walk independently in his own time, so there is no reason to force it.

Some of my son's early steps. So happy!

According to Dr. Husband’s Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization notes, the ideal motor development sequence is:

1. Oblique sitting
2. Regular sit
3. Active sit
4. Crawling
5. Standing
6. Active stance
7. First steps

For me, watching for the active stance portion prior to the first step is something I'm going to try to remember for Baby Girl. It’s all so exciting for you, your partner and your baby that it’s difficult to not encourage those first tiny steps.

However, as much as I’ve said not to encourage, the DNS notes point out that the entire sequence listed above all depends on motivation. It’s the motivation of you, your voice, toys and objects that will inspire your baby to move through this sequence.

As a movement mommy, your role is to make sure those motivators are there but in the right space and at the right time, so they can inspire the correct movement for the stage your baby is at.

Sitting: Infant Development 7 to 9 Months

Now we movement mommies are starting to get some movement babies! From seven to nine months, we’re looking for baby to naturally get into the seated position. I say "naturally" because we want him to do it by himself—we don’t want to put him there.

Pincer Grasp

One of the first signs that your baby is ready for siting can actually be detected from how he uses his fingers. Since he was born, baby has been slowly moving through positions of his hands, from thumb tucked into fist, thumb out of fist, open hand and now to pincer grasp. This ability to grasp objects motivates him through positions and into sitting. (Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization notes). 

The natural development of sitting stems from the side lying position where baby is supporting himself at the elbow and forearm. Around eight months, this side lying position develops into the oblique sitting position, during which baby is still supporting himself on his side, but now with an open arm. Finally, to get to the regular sit position, baby will develop the ability to push off from all fours or the oblique sit and onto his bum. (Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization presentation notes.)

Congratulations, you have a natural sitter!

Considering our society is inclined to make milestones a bit of a “competition,” I always felt the need to defend myself and my son when we were around others with babies the same age or even just in conversation. In the end, I just settled on saying, “Nope, he’s not sitting yet,” because that was the truth. I basically used this phrase for every milestone going forward. My son did things on his own terms—something that is a distinct part of his current personality…

A Bit of Context

Originally Posted: March 5, 2014

For some context, my husband is a private practice chiropractor with more than 500 hours of post-graduate study and certification in manual therapy techniques beyond chiropractic. He has worked hard to diversify his study to encompass the best from many conservative care fields such as chiropractic, physical therapy, osteopathy and neurology to name a few.

For our purposes, it is his certification in Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization (DNS) according to Dr. Pavel Kolar that is most intriguing since much of DNS is based off of developmental patterns of infants.

To quote my husband:

“The normal development process of infants is predictable and can be seen in every healthy infant with the exact same patterns. These patterns then become our map of what physiological movement is. This genetically predetermined process, guides our rehabilitation from infants to adults and these principles have been extremely successful in treating cerebral palsy patients as well as increasing the performance of professional and Olympic athletes.” 

And to quote the DNS website:

“The nervous system establishes programs that control human locomotion, which is compromised of posture and movement. This ‘motor control’ is largely established during the first critical years of life. Therefore, the Prague School emphasizes neurodevelopment aspects of motor control in order to assess and restore dysfunction of the locomotor system and associated syndromes.” 

The proper motor control that is established during these first few years of life has an effect on the structure of the body as well, which forms our joints, curves of the spine, angles of the hips, position of our feet, etc. This is indeed a critical time—and I hope you’re excited to explore more with me!