GM.B.66 CRUISES BETWEEN FURNITURE, CROSSING A GAP

If your child has completed Sequence GM.A, she is now using her arms only minimally for support, as the control now comes from her hips and legs.

The baby is more daring now and no longer restricts herself to cruising around one piece of furniture. She starts to cross gaps, reaching out for furniture or objects slightly beyond arm’s length.

 How to Assess

Materials: A chest-high support, such as a chair or coffee table, with another support at an angle 1 or 2 steps away. Toys.

Method: Place your child standing against the first support. Put the toys on the other support. Encourage your child to reach to the second support, and when she has hold, to walk her legs to it. Score plus if your child can get herself from one support to the next.

How to Teach

Your child will not need a lot of help to reach this skill if she is ready for it. If she cannot cross the gap readily when helped as described below, continue practising GM.A.65.

To teach this skill, you can help your child to move her hands to the second support and, if necessary, guide her from her hips to move her legs. This help should be phased out as soon as possible.

As your child gets the idea, add more pieces of furniture, in a line or a circle. Add more difficult supports, such as something which presents a vertical surface.

Gradually make the gaps wider and wider, and before you know where you are, she will be walking:

If you child has low muscle tone, use a headband (as described in GM.A) to help her to keep her legs close together. Otherwise she may persist with a widely spread gait. She must learn to use her trunk to help her balance, even if it takes a little longer.

You can teach other walking and standing skills from the 12 to 15 months’ level of this sequence at the same time as teaching this skill.