How to Encourage Your Baby to Walk: What Actually Helps
You’ve watched them pull up, cruise the sofa, and stand there grinning — and now you’re itching to see those first independent steps. So you start wondering: is there anything you can actually do to help it along?
Here’s the honest answer up front: you can’t rush the timeline — walking arrives on your baby’s schedule, not yours — but you absolutely can create the conditions that help. That means plenty of floor time, lots of chances to pull up and cruise, supported standing, barefoot practice, and steering clear of the one thing that actually slows babies down. If you first want the lay of the land, see when babies start walking and the walking milestones month by month. Then come back here for the how.
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Practice Thousands of Steps a day Build walking |
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Opportunity Open floor time Beats any Walking device |
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Patience You support the Timeline — You don’t Set it |
Can You Encourage a Baby to Walk Faster?
Not really — you can’t speed up the underlying timeline, but you can remove obstacles and give your baby the practice that lets walking emerge on time. Walking depends on brain, balance, and strength all maturing together, and that can’t be hurried. What you can do is make sure nothing is holding your baby back and that they get plenty of chances to practise. Think of yourself as the one who sets the stage, not the one who pushes the timeline.
How Do I Know My Baby Is Ready to Walk?
Your baby is getting ready to walk when they can pull up to stand, cruise along furniture, stand alone for a few seconds, and lower themselves back down with control. Readiness shows up as a cluster of skills rather than a single moment. Before the first independent steps, most babies move through a recognisable run-up:
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SIGNS WALKING IS COMING ✓ Pulling up confidently on furniture and standing while holding on ✓ Cruising sideways along the sofa or low table, shifting weight foot to foot ✓ Standing alone for a few seconds without holding anything ✓ Squatting and lowering back down with control instead of plopping ✓ Walking when you hold their hands, then needing only one hand ✓ Cruising between two pieces of furniture with a small gap — a big sign steps are close |
If your baby is showing several of these, independent steps are usually weeks away, not months. If they’re not pulling up or cruising yet, those come first — encourage those stages rather than pushing standing or stepping before the foundation is there.
What Actually Helps Your Baby Learn to Walk?
The biggest helper is simple: lots of supervised floor time and freedom to move, because walking is built through massive amounts of practice. Researchers who counted found new walkers take thousands of steps and dozens of tumbles a day — that sheer volume of practice is how the skill is built (Adolph et al., 2012). And it starts long before standing: early floor and tummy time lay the motor foundation, with more tummy time linked to stronger gross motor development (Hewitt, Kerr, Stanley & Okely, 2020).
Walking isn’t one skill — it’s balance, leg strength, and the confidence to let go, all coming together. You can’t install any of those directly, but every one of them is sharpened by practice in a safe, open space. That’s why the most powerful thing you can do is unglamorous: clear the floor and let your baby move. Here’s what that looks like day to day:
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WHAT GENUINELY HELPS ✓ Maximise floor time. Open, safe floor space is where all the practice happens — more than any toy or device. ✓ Let them pull up and cruise. Stable, sturdy furniture at the right height invites standing and side-stepping. ✓ Offer your hands, then less. Hold both hands, then one, then a fingertip — gradually let them carry their own balance. ✓ Go barefoot indoors. Bare feet grip and send better balance feedback than shoes on flat indoor surfaces. ✓ Place toys just out of reach. A favourite toy a step or two away is powerful motivation to let go and move. ✓ Cheer and stay calm about falls. Confidence matters; a relaxed "up you get" keeps them trying. |
Best Activities to Encourage Walking, by Stage
Match the encouragement to where your baby is now — pre-cruiser, cruiser, or brand-new walker — rather than pushing the next stage too early. Each stage builds on the last:
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Stage |
What to encourage |
How |
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Pre-standing |
Strength and floor mobility |
Tummy time, reaching, supported sitting, rolling games |
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Pulling up |
Getting to standing |
Toys on a low, stable surface to pull up toward |
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Cruising |
Sideways stepping, weight shift |
Furniture in a safe line; toys spaced along it |
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First steps |
Letting go, forward steps |
Hands-then-fingertip support; toys a step away; a push wagon |
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Route to the specifics Each stage has its own deep-dive: pulling to stand, cruising along furniture, and the core-strength exercises that underpin it all. The trickiest jump — from confident cruising to letting go — is its own thing: the proprioception gap between cruising and steps explains why it happens. |
A little more on each stage. For a pre-stander, the work is all on the floor: tummy time, rolling, reaching across the body, and supported sitting build the trunk strength everything else rests on. Once your baby starts pulling up, set the bait — put a favourite toy on a low, stable surface so getting to standing has a reward at the top. During cruising, arrange furniture in a connected line and gradually widen small gaps so they have to take a braver sideways step to bridge them. And for the brand-new walker, the magic combination is motivation plus shrinking support: stand a step away with open arms, or offer a fingertip they think is holding them up when it barely is.
Resist the urge to drill any of this. Ten relaxed minutes woven through play beats a formal "practice session" every time — babies learn best when it feels like a game, not a test.
Common Mistakes That Hold Babies Back
The most common mistakes are over-relying on walkers and containers, rushing the timeline, and hovering so closely that your baby never practises catching their own balance. Most are well-meaning. The single biggest one deserves its own myth-buster:
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❌ MYTH: A baby walker will help my baby learn to walk sooner.
✅ REALITY: Walkers let babies move without using the muscles and balance real walking requires, so they can slow motor development — and they’re a leading cause of injury. Despite the name, they don’t teach walking. Free movement on the floor beats the device every time. |
The rest of the common traps:
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WHAT TO STEP BACK FROM ✓ Too much container time. Hours in bouncers, jumpers, swings, and seats is time not spent practising on the floor. ✓ Stiff, hard shoes too early. Indoors, bare feet grip and sense balance better; save supportive shoes for outside. ✓ Rushing or forcing. Propping a baby to stand before they’re ready doesn’t speed anything up and can frustrate them. ✓ Hovering and over-catching. If you catch every wobble, your baby never learns to recover — supervise closely but let small tumbles happen. ✓ Comparing to other babies. The normal range is wide; a friend’s early walker says nothing about yours. |
What to Avoid: Do Baby Walkers Help?
No — baby walkers don’t teach walking and can actually delay it, on top of being a serious safety hazard. See the myth-buster above; if you want to help, skip the walker and offer floor time and a simple push toy your baby can lean on instead.
When Will My Baby Walk — And Is Mine Behind?
Most babies walk somewhere between about 9 and 18 months, and the whole range is normal — a later walker is usually just a later walker. If your baby is pulling up, cruising, and otherwise meeting milestones, there’s rarely cause for concern. For the full picture of timing and what counts as a red flag, when babies start walking lays out the normal range and the few signs worth a check-in. Comparison with other babies is the fastest route to needless worry — try to resist it.
That said, a few things are worth a conversation with your pediatrician: not pulling to stand by around 12 months, not bearing weight on the legs, not walking at all by 18 months, walking only on tiptoes, or losing a skill they previously had. None of these is a diagnosis — they’re simply reasons to check in for reassurance. Otherwise, trust the wide normal range and keep the practice going.
A Word on Falls During Practice
Encouraging walking means accepting a lot of tumbles — they’re how balance is learned, and almost all are harmless. A new walker can fall many times an hour; how many times babies fall learning to walk puts the numbers in perspective. Your job isn’t to prevent every fall — it’s to keep the practice space safe and stay calm so your baby keeps trying.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you teach a baby to walk?
Not in the sense of speeding up the timeline — walking emerges when your baby’s brain, balance, and strength are ready, and that can’t be forced. What you can do is teach through opportunity: give lots of floor time, chances to pull up and cruise, gradually reduced hand support, and barefoot practice. You’re creating the conditions and the motivation, not installing the skill. The practice itself — thousands of steps and tumbles — is what does the teaching.
What activities help a baby walk?
The most effective are the simplest: open floor time, pulling up on sturdy furniture, cruising along a line of stable surfaces, supported standing with your hands (then just a fingertip), and placing a favourite toy a step out of reach to motivate movement. A push wagon they can lean on helps once they’re nearly walking. None of these involve equipment that holds your baby upright — the goal is always to let their own muscles and balance do the work.
Do baby walkers help babies walk?
No. Despite the name, baby walkers don’t teach walking — babies use them by pushing off in a way that doesn’t build the balance and muscle control real walking needs, and research links heavy use to slightly delayed milestones. They’re also a major cause of injury, which is why pediatric bodies discourage them. If you want to help, skip the walker and offer floor time and a simple push toy instead. Time spent upright in a device is time not spent practising the real thing.
How can I help my baby walk without a walker?
Give them the floor and a reason to cross it. Clear a safe, open space and let your baby spend as much waking time as possible moving freely on it. Encourage pulling up on sturdy furniture, cruising along a connected line of surfaces, and standing while holding your hands — then gradually offer just one hand, then a fingertip. Place a favourite toy a step or two out of reach as motivation, and once they’re nearly walking, a weighted push wagon they can lean on is the only "device" worth having. Bare feet indoors and lots of calm encouragement do the rest.
So, What Can You Actually Do?
You can’t hand your baby the skill of walking — but you can build the runway. Clear the floor, offer plenty of chances to pull up, cruise, and stand, trade two hands for one and then a fingertip, let them go barefoot, and put something tempting just out of reach. Skip the walker, stay relaxed about the inevitable tumbles, and resist comparing. Do that, and you’ve done your whole job: your baby supplies the thousands of steps, and the walking takes care of itself.
Keep the tumbles in perspective with why babies fall so often, and check the timing against when babies start walking.
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For the wobbly weeks of practice: all that encouragement means a lot of falling — most of it harmless, but the backward landings onto hard floors are the ones that make you wince. The bee-shaped Head Protection Backpack adds a soft cushion at the back of the head while your new walker finds their feet.
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Scientific References
[1] Adolph KE, Cole WG, Komati M, Garciaguirre JS, Badaly D, Lingeman JM, Chan GLY & Sotsky RB (2012). How Do You Learn to Walk? Thousands of Steps and Dozens of Falls Per Day. Psychological Science, 23(11), 1387–1394. DOI: 10.1177/0956797612446346. — Observational study showing new walkers take thousands of steps and many falls daily; that volume of practice is how walking is built. Used here to support practice and opportunity as the core of encouragement. PubMed PMID 23085640: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23085640/
[2] Hewitt L, Kerr E, Stanley RM & Okely AD (2020). Tummy Time and Infant Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review. Pediatrics, 145(6), e20192168. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2019-2168. — Systematic review finding tummy time positively associated with gross motor development, supporting early floor time as the foundation that later walking builds on. Used here for the role of floor-based practice. PubMed PMID 32371428: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32371428/
