Let’s Talk About Late Walking…
If your toddler isn’t walking or talking yet and you’re thinking “could those be related?”… you are right!
There is an association between late walking and late talking or late language emergence. Being a late walker is a risk factor for delayed speech and language development.
Why might this be?
Toddler brains are developing multiple areas at once! Motor skills and language skills have some overlapping areas in the brain. If one or more of these areas happens to be developing on a slower timeline, both skills can be impacted and experience a delay.
Walking massively expands a toddler’s experience! Once toddlers can move independently, they can explore more, interact more and with more people, and create more opportunities to learn language. Increasing their physical agency in the world allows them to create more of the physical opportunities where language learning is likely to happen!
Movement and communication go hand in hand! Gestures, imitation, joint attention (or coordinated shared attention with someone else on the same object- a foundational language skill), reaching, pointing, and many other skills are connected to how toddlers engage with their environment. Walking can expand how these skills are expressed AND reacted to by the adults around, which can create more rich communication interactions!
Some toddlers simply develop on a slower timeline! A child may take longer to master several milestones while still making healthy developmental progress. A delay is definitely not necessarily something that will last forever and intervening earlier is shown to get kiddos back on track faster than intervening later!
So what can parents do about delays in these areas? An evaluation with a pediatric physical or occupational therapist can be an initial way to support walking. And I am here to support your toddler’s talking! Don’t forget that I offer free consultations if you just want a conversation with an expert about where your child is today and to see if support is recommended!
The most important thing to remember is that there is ONLY a connection between late walking and late talking! Just because your child is exhibiting one does not mean that they will automatically experience the other. And support is always available if your child is experiencing one of those, so you can always do to help your child!
