The Walking Wonder: How Learning to Walk Changes Everyone
At 16 1/2 months, my daughter is an expert walker. In fact she even runs on occasion, though not nearly as fast and often as her friend, Sadie (pictured at right) who seems to prefer to run every where she goes, little pigtails bouncing with each step.
With my daughter firmly in Stage 5 development (according to Dr. Maria Montessori it is from month 12 to month 18), I thought I’d weigh in on a few of her developmental milestones to date. (FYI, for a really good list of all of the neurological and physical developments go HERE for the mommybahn’s take). Of particular interest to me are the following advances made possible by the “right brain” and “left brain” formulation… a phenomenon about which all the artists in my family are all a twitter.
One development is heterolateral movement – meaning that the brain can navigate movement on alternating sides of the body like stair climbing or swing your arms while walking. Right now Sophie either walks like a Frankenstein baby with her knees locked and her body stiffly swaying in the direction her feet are moving or she swings her upper body from side to side while walking with such glee that she invariably knocks herself off balance. It’s utterly endearing. I did manage to capture all this on tape so that we can look back and remember how she learned to walk. I fear all these little experiments with movement and balance will cease as soon as she masters walking, never to be seen again unless on video.
Further evidence of the communication between brain hemispheres is hand dominance. Unfortunately, since I’ve broken my right hand Sophie has been mimicking my left handed movements so it’s hard to tell which hand is dominant for her yet. She seems quite ambidextrous at this point.
And finally, cross-patterning. The brain can now, in Stage 5, manage to navigate your hand across your body to do something. Think shaking hands, reaching over your plate to grab a spoon, opening doors. Ahh, the opening and closing of doors. This activity is done repeatedly all day as often as possible. In fact, Sophie so enjoys this that she doesn’t even realize she’s closed herself into a closet or the bathroom until she realizes that she can’t grab the edge of the door to open it. It’s a wonder we spend any money on toys!?!
All this to say our little one is progressing right on target…however, as I read more and more about milestones I’m learning that I care less about the time frame that she masters said milestones and more about her discovering new possibilities. It’s easy to get caught up in the constant competition of comparing who is doing what and when they do it. I know, I’m guilty of it myself more than I care to admit. Only, if I take a step back and just watch Sophie and her discoveries, I find that I’m more inclined to share in the wonder of them with her rather than gloating about them.
