Make yourself scared

This is a hard but very effective way to find out what challenges your child is facing while learning to walk: get yourself in a situation where you are safe, but afraid of falling. You wil gain an instant understanding how balance influences movement. Having experienced a situation like this first hand will help you understand you child on a different and deeper level, and it will make a huge difference in your work.

Height is relative

The level on which a person gets afraid of falling is very relative. It might be no more than a meter for one, others need a bungee jump or parachute for the same effect. Any child that does not know how to fall and has to get up from the floor or walk is faced with that fear. Reasons could be a limited flexibility in the spine, hands that can`t be relied on to push or break a fall, too little experience in weight shifts or legs and hips that don`t know how to bend.

This already happens in sitting. One can even feel their balance threatened while lying on the floor - think about being really drunk, or seasick. Then even rolling to the side becomes a scary experience.

Safety

I knew I was safe. Theoretically. Still, I was very scared. Just knowing intellectually helps... to some extent. (Without a safety harness I probably would not have moved a single step.) Still, even if it is safe, and looks safe, and we know that it is safe, we cannot stop the nervous system from reacting. Reflexes cannot be suppressed by willpower.

Effort

It took me a lot to walk over that bar - but the effort was not physical, it needed a huge amount of concentration and mental effort. The movement itself was easy, I was basically walking sideways and could have done so without any problem close to the ground.

• I am too old is not a valid argument - I am 56 in that video. The challenge is not an athletic movement.
• Any distraction would have made it much harder, even if it was an encouraging cheer. I needed to be able to concentrate on myself.

Please switch to full screen in the next video so you can see the whole figure.

Please switch to full screen in the next video so you can see the whole figure.