When Do Babies Start Walking?

Both of my children were late walkers. Our pediatrician was characteristically relaxed about it, but I was not (especially with the first child). I wondered: what kind of incentives could I provide? Special shoes? I know I was not alone, because a friend once said she stayed home from work for several days to teach her child to walk. Can you even do that? She swore she did.

Walking is one of those milestones that looms large in the moment. Among typically developing children, the age of walking ranges from 9 to 17 months. That is a huge range, which invites comparison. And comparison invites anxiety.

Below, all about walking — what’s normal and when you should worry (if at all).

Take me to the bottom line

What is the typical age of walking?

Many trusted sources — the CDC, hospital and pediatric websites — will note that the age of first walking ranges from 9 to 17 months. In CDC milestone guidelines, walking is in the 18-month bucket. This means that, based on its guidance, pediatricians and parents should be concerned if independent walking is not occurring by that age.

In principle, it seems like it would be straightforward to get detailed data on age of walking, but there is less research on this than you might think. Appropriate ranges for age of walking generally rely on the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS), which was developed based on several hundred Canadian infants. This has been validated in further data, but mostly in small samples.

The AIMS data points to an average age of walking of around 12 months. Other data suggests this may be slightly older. A study of several thousand children in Norway found that the average age of walking was around 12.88 months — so, almost 13 — with 25% of children walking at 12 months, 50% at 13 months, and 75% by 14 months. Its normal distribution suggests that 95% of children will walk by 17 months. Within this range, there is no reason to be concerned about the timing.

It is this type of data that leads pediatricians to look for the milestone at the 18-month visit and use that as the threshold for evaluation. It is worth noting that the link to the 18-month visit is driven by the fact that that is a time when people come in for a well visit. Since most children do walk by 17 months, if your child is not walking at that point, it could be worth a call to the doctor for a possible earlier evaluation.

Why do some kids walk earlier than others?

The timing of walking does seem to have some links to other motor skills. That Norwegian study referenced above argues that kids who crawl on their hands and knees (as opposed to bottom shuffling) start to walk about one month earlier. It is also clear that there is variation in walking development based on culture and opportunities for walking. Work in Kenya, for example, shows an average earlier walking age, due to children being given more opportunity to walk independently at earlier ages.

Part of this variation, and general variation, reflects the fact that learning to walk takes practice. More opportunities to practice (which includes a lot of falling!) speeds up the process. To the extent that one wants to increase the speed at which a child learns to walk, more opportunities for practice is one approach. I should be clear, though, that there will be variation in when kids learn to walk even given the same practice opportunities. Much of this is just individual-specific variation — genetic, environmental, etc.

Can you teach your child to walk?

Physical or occupational therapy is often prescribed if a child is not walking by 18 months. These interventions have been shown to have some limited success with, for example, children with cerebral palsy. These are cases in which there may be concerns that some motor skill has not been developed, or some muscle group is not fully engaged. The approaches in these interventions will vary depending on the particular issue.

If your child is typically developing and you just want them to walk sooner, it may be possible to speed up the process by providing incentives. We know that age of walking varies across cultures, which suggests it’s not genetically ingrained. Whether you want to do this is another question — there is not any obvious benefit to walking earlier within the typical range.

Do seated baby walkers help or hurt?

The need for practice (and falling) is one of the reasons parents are sometimes cautioned against seated baby walkers. These walkers can assist babies in being upright, but there are worries that they delay the onset of walking. (They are also an accident risk if, say, a child falls down the stairs in one, but I’m focused here on the walking part.)

The evidence generally doesn’t suggest this is a significant concern. A review paper covers several studies. The two randomized trials did not show any impact on walking age, and even in cohort studies (which are less clearly causal, because the families who use walkers may differ in other ways), there are only very slight differences — a few days later for those children using walkers. So there’s no need for a walker, but the data doesn’t suggest it’s a significant risk, either.

Is walking linked to speech development?

There are two ways you might ask this question. The first is whether kids who talk early also walk early. There isn’t much evidence for this, outside of the fact that large-scale developmental delays may be seen in both domains. But within typically developing children, not really.

However, there is a lot of evidence that children have significant growth in language as they start to walk. One paper reports on a study that followed children as they moved from crawling to walking and found that when they learned to walk, language grew rapidly. This was especially true for speaking, although it also appears for understanding language. Other work has shown similar results.

It’s not entirely clear why this is true, but there are various hypotheses. Walking may allow kids more access to novel stimuli, which they can learn and talk about. It may cause their parents to interact with them more, or differently, in a way that prompts language development.

Regardless of the reason: when your child starts to walk, you may see a rapid increase in their language.

What is toe walking?

“Toe walking” refers to a gait in which a child is walking on their tiptoes, rather than the more standard gait in which you land on the heel or midfoot and then exit the step on your toe. Toe walking is more common when children are learning to walk, but by age 5 it occurs in an estimated 2% of typically developing children and 41% of those with neurological diagnoses or developmental delays.

These figures mean that toe walking is a potential signal of broader neurological issues but also that the vast majority of toe walking is “idiopathic,” meaning it is an isolated symptom.

If a child is toe walking beyond toddlerhood, they should be evaluated. Assuming there are no other issues, treatment depends on how serious the issue is. There are surgical options and non-surgical ones, but overall there is limited evidence suggesting that one approach is better than another.

The bottom line

Many trusted sources say that the age of first walking ranges from 9 to 17 months. Pediatricians typically look for walking at the 18-month checkup and may suggest additional evaluations if your child is not walking by then.
Learning to walk takes practice, and more opportunities to practice (which includes falling) speeds up the process. This need for practice is one of the reasons parents are sometimes cautioned against baby walkers. However, studies have shown that baby walkers don’t help or hurt.
Walking is linked to speech development — there is a lot of evidence that children have significant growth in language as they start to walk.
“Toe walking” is common for children who are just learning to walk. If a child is toe walking beyond toddlerhood, they should be evaluated.