Question for Moms of Late Walkers

[tunibell]

My DD walked pretty late (she started walking independently a week before she turned 19 months). Since then, I find myself watching her like a hawk for any other signs of delays. I was just wondering if your late walker had any other delays? And, if so, did they catch up?

Thanks so much...

[twainny]

A friend of mine had a somewhat late walker. I believe he was around 16 or 17 months (granted, I read somewhere that 10-15 months is "normal" so I don't really think 17 months is THAT bad). Anyways.... he is almost 3 now, and is in the normal to "advanced" range. The family speaks German at home and he goes to an English school, and he totally understands both languages. He talks up a storm. If I were to compare my child to him, I would say my son is defiantly the jock and that boy is the smart one! The boy just doesn't play and run around outside like my son (and another friend). I think he may be more introverted.

[rachrich]

My DD walked on her own when she was almost 18 months. Ped wasn't concerned, and neither were we, we were just annoyed that she wasn't walking on her own yet. The daycare seemed real concerned that she was behind "physically" and I just kind of ignored them because I knew she'd take off when she was ready. I, personally, think she was just scared of doing it on her own.

anyhow, she was doing just fine in other areas of development. She has excellent speech and language skills, and her fine motor skills are really great too. I tell myself that she makes up in other areas for being behind in walking. I've heard of children who walk early, but speak really late. A coworker's daughter will turn 2 at the end of this month and she barely speeks a word, but she started walking around 11 months. all children develop different!

[HollyMN]

DS didn't walk until 18 months. We did get him checked out, but not for the walking. At 12 months he wasn't mobile at all, wasn't bearing weight on his feet, and wasn't getting up to a sitting position from lying down - those things were more concerning than the walking. Now he's fully caught up at age two and he's jumping, etc. He hasn't ever had delays in other areas. Now that we're in the system, we'll probably keep getting him checked until he's 3 although I'm not worried.

[emschwar]

Noah didn't walk until he was 19 months old. He couldn't pull up until 15 months, and couldn't sit up from lying until 15 months either. Now, 3 months from turning 4, you'd never know. He runs, jumps, skips and horses around just like the other kids. He was a little delayed on gross motor for 6 months or a year, maybe (nothing worrisome, just a bit slower to gain skills like jumping than normal development).

[DisneyGirl]

My DD didn't walk until she was about 17 months and she's now 2.5 and she has shown no signs of being behind in other areas.

[kimbyj]

I don't have kids but wanted to add that I started walking at 7 months. YES, SEVEN MONTHS. But I didn't have teeth until I was 17 months (I had one start coming in at 11 months but that was it) - my mother was so worried she thought they would need to make baby dentures for me.

[Jenzen01]

I'm glad to hear of other late walkers. My DD is still not walking, and she'll turn 15 months next week. She's crusiing, walking with her walker, pushing stuff, and walking while I hold one hand. She just WILL NOT stand on her own. She flops over as soon as I let go of her hand. It's driving me nuts right now because I tend to obsess about things to begin with.

Anyway, I am just dreading her 15-month WBV because I know we'll have to talk about it, and I'm afraid my dr. will tell me she has something wrong. To put this in perspective, we've had a year full of scares, so this is just one more thing. My dr. had Ada sent to a neurologist for her head size, so I've been watching for signs of hydrocephalus for months. The neurologist thinks she's fine, just genetically predisposed to a large head. However, I fear everything lately, because that was quite a scare.

[Littlelamb11]

DD was a late-ish walker...17 months...or was it 19 months..she's almost 5.5yo now. I can't remember back that far, LOL. She was notorious for reaching her physical milestones later. rolling, crawling, cruising, walking, jumping...all late--ish. She would seriously practice in her crib until it was perfect and then she would show us she can do it, and do it perfectly. at 5yo, she's still a perfectionist. :)

Anyway, I blame her lateness on the physical milestones on her perfectionist nature as well as her early verbal skills. That's what she was concentrating on. She has always been a chatter box. She was also big in to letters and numbers...knew all her letter sounds and could identify all her uppercase letters by 18 months and she had a vocabulary of over 500 words and her lowercase letters by her second birthday. She started reading just before her 3rd birthday. In the end, IMO, DD was more interested in learning letter sounds and learned the name of EVERYTHING under the sun than taking steps. Eventually, she found the need to walk so she did it. :)

Since she started walking, she has had no other delays. And her Ped never actually considered her walking late as she said it still fell in the normal range. She runs, jumps and climbs just as well as all the other kids on the playground at school. :)

[Winter Biscuit]

My BFF's daughter (my goddaughter) didn't walk until she was 18.5 months old and she's totally normal :) There was nothing wrong -- she just didn't have any interest whatsoever in walking. My friend would try to stand Katie up, and her legs would collapse into a heat. Finally, around 17 months, she was standing for longer periods but still wouldn't walk. At 18 months she would walk, but only if you held her hand. If you let go of her hand, she'd immediately sit down on her bottm. A few weeks later, she finally agreed to walk on her own.

She is a very tall girl (both of her parents are TALL) so she has always been "big" for her age. My friend got a lot of negative comments in public from people who felt it was their business to comment (e.g. people assumed she was older than she really was due to her being so tall and would say stuff like "OMG, how old is she?! She can't walk?!), which was very stressful for my friend. But again, her daughter is totally normal, just a late bloomer ;)

[Winter Biscuit]

Grrr -- no edit button -- in my first paragraph above, I meant to say she's collapse into a heap, not into a heat. She's a person, not a dog ;)

[jay&erinn]

Gotta love the edit button disappearing:rolleyes:

Friend's DD didn't walk until after 18 months. She had PT at several points along the way because she wasn't rolling over at 9 months and then wasn't crawling at 15 months, etc. She's a very bright little girl and very verbal. Watching her next to my DD today (they're 9 months apart) you wouldn't know who walked first. She's still a little delayed physically, but not something that is noticable to anyone but those that know the situation. My guess is that it occasionally bothers mom who is a physical therapist since she'll point out her delay to me, but we're friends and moms always worry. She still takes stairs one at a time instead of alternating feet and has some difficulty jumping and hopping. Honestly though, since there are no neurological problems causing the delay, who cares. She's bright and happy, just might not be a star soccer player;)

[Pookie]

I guess you could consider my DS a "late walker." He took his first steps at 11 months. At 14 months he started walking, but had a bad fall later that day. He refused to walk again until 16 months. Our ped wasn't at all concerned since he would walk, but insisted on holding onto walls, etc. FWIW, before he was walking he was climing more than average. When he finally started walking, he was running the same day. My DS is just very stubborn and doesn't do anything until he decides it's time. He's on the normal to above range for everything else.

[Geranium]

I wouldn't consider 19 months late. Everything I've read (EC research) says the longer kids stay flat or on all fours, the better their reading/comprehension/language skills show. We actually discouraged our DD1 from walking early for this reason.

[dal]

Everything I've read (EC research) says the longer kids stay flat or on all fours, the better their reading/comprehension/language skills show. We actually discouraged our DD1 from walking early for this reason. Do you have any links to such information?

[Jenzen01]

I saw that research somewhere when I was googling late walkers. The deal is not that early walking is bad ... it's the amount of time crawling. So, if you had an early crawler that walked early, too, it's the same as a late crawler who walked late, you know? I guess there's some difference between kids who go straight from crawling to walking with no time in between to those who spend a few months crawling.

In our case, my son started crawling at 6 months and walking at 9.5. My daughter, on the other hand, started crawling at 9.5 months and is just now taking some very first steps at 15 months.

I'll see if I can find that research again. That said, I don't think I'd ever discourage walking ... they're going to do what they're going to do.

[Jenzen01]

Found it: http://www.chiroweb.com/archives/13/12/20.html

I think this article is a little extreme. I also found an article about how this research primarily concerns white, Western countries. There are a lot of countries where crawling is not as important (children are carried most of the time before age 1).

So, take it all with a grain of salt.

[Geranium]

I don't have any links but I remembered learning about this during the EC segment of my undergrad. It seems like it was also tied into the "tummy time" /reading theory. Also, by "discouraged" I only mean we didn't try to prompt DD to walk, as in standing her up and saying, "come to mommy" type stuff.

[melmatsu]

I had two late walkers. My DS, now 4, didn't walk until 18 months. He ended up needing speech therapy from age 2-3. The speech therapist was never able to determine the cause of the speech delay, but he's doing really well now. My son is never in a hurry to do anything.

My DD, 2.5 years, didn't walk until 17 months. She was accelerated in speech (she spoke in short sentences by 16 months) and was totally fine in other areas.

I think most of the time, late walkers are just late walkers.

[shortcake]

DD didn't walk until 17 months. She is 4 now. I am glad to hear most of the other posters with late walkers didn't see other developmental delays, since I think that is most common! DD does have some delays with her motor skills, and she is in therapy for it now. (Didn't jump 'til 3.5, still takes stairs one at a time, and FEARFUL on playground equipment. Fine motor skills are slightly delayed but better than gross.) But her therapists and everyone seem to think she'll catch up fine - there is nothing neurological going on. And we're seeing improvement pretty quickly, so that is great. I'm a worry wart though and can't completely relax yet!

[marchfamily]

My first was a late walker (15.5M) - and she never crawled. We found at at around 2y.o. that she has developmental delays (apraxia and sensory integration disorder). The late walking wasn't as much a concern as other milestone delays. She just turned 3 and has made significant progress in physical skills, but continues to be very behind in motor planning and speech.