When Do Babies Start Walking and Talking
Jan 17, 2022 Your child will hit many milestones throughout the course of their life. These milestones may be holding their own bottle, rolling over, crawling, talking and walking.
In This Article
If you have children and have done your research, you know MOST children take their first steps somewhere between 10 and 12 months. It’s our nature as parents to second guess the situation that if our kid isn’t walking by 14 months, then there MUST be an issue, right?
Wrong. That doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with your child.
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So When SHOULD You Worry about the Milestones?
To determine if your child’s inability to walk is cause for concern, you need to look at the big picture; look at everything your child is able to do. Even though they may not be walking at 14 months, are they pulling themselves up to stand? Do they stand alone? Do they bounce up and down when you are holding them?
These are all signs that your child’s gross motor skills are developing. These also all indicate that your child may take his/her first steps shortly. When your child reaches 18 months, if they still aren’t walking, then have a discussion with your pediatrician about your child’s development.
When Do Babies Start Talking?
This same rule applies to talking. Most children will say their first meaningful words around 12 months. Some don’t say their first word until 14 months or later. For more about speech milestones, please check out my other blog Babbling and Speech Development.
Story Time: My Experience as a Mother
If you have been reading my blogs, you know that I have a three-year-old daughter and an eight-month-old son.
At first, my daughter was speaking “on track” and within the developmental norms that I learned about in college when I was studying to be a speech-language pathologist.
Proof of this was apparent in that by 11-12 months, she was saying “da da” and “ma ma” consistently. After 12 months, her vocabulary and word approximations went through the roof. Although her speech progress was off the charts, she sat up unassisted at 7 months, crawled at 9 months, and began to walk independently at a little over 12 months. The situation was completely different than with my son.
Nicholas rolled for the first time at two months, started rolling at four months, and is super close to crawling. His speech progress, though, is slower than Nora’s. Although he makes sounds, he isn’t babbling as much as she was at his age.
I’m sharing this information with you to give some peace of mind. Kids will develop their skills at different rates. Both gender, as well as birth order, plays a role. I am convinced Nicholas is a mover because he’s trying to keep up with Nora, and tries very hard to be everywhere that my husband and I are.
That said, it IS important to know when skills being super late can be a problem.
Please check out other articles in Speech Blubs’ blog section of their website. We have a ton of blogs that will give you more information regarding this very topic (e.g., developmental milestones).
I always tell parents that if they are concerned, call your pediatrician. It’s better to be wrong, than to wait. The earlier intervention starts, the better!
To get more insights about your child’s speech and language milestones, feel free to get a FREE personalized feedback on your child’s speech progress, reviewed by certified speech therapist.