12 TO 18 MONTHS.
The most significant event of the next 6 months... is that the child does not start to walk immediately, but necessarily during this period, earlier or later.
Approximately 6 months... separate the baby clinginging to the crossbars of the arena to stand on his feet, from the child who learned to walk, without holding the hand of the father. Six months of daily effort with its ups and downs: on other days, he moves forward by leaps and bounds, and on less fortunate days, he can barely be held upright. Learning to walk will require so much effort from the child that there is almost no success in other areas.
At a one-year-old age, the child said the first word, and it seemed he was about to talk, but between the 12th and 18th month, he trampled on the mes. For example, some children who were already able to pronounce all words, if not all, then one of the syllables, now do not pronounce it. Parents believe that the child has forgotten the word, in fact, it now occupies! quite another - walking. In addition, he slept very well L now that he begins to walk, he has sleepless nights. This applies to all periods of development: a child's success in one area may be accompanied by a slowdown in other areas.
When by 18 months... the child learns to walk on his own, it may seem that his development has stopped somewhat; in fact, the child notices everything and accumulates knowledge that will appear later, on the next round. So, at the age of 2-21/2 years old there will be a new breakthrough - important progress in the development of speech.
Thus, at the age of 12-18 months ... the vast majority of children begin to walk independently; this period is called by some experts a "period of noticeable changes". But we do not insist on that definition, because the stages of development have no clear boundaries. Let's add that the ability to walk independently is not associated with success in mental development, unlike the previous stages (grabbing hand movements).
Periods of noticeable shifts (for the first time named so by M. Montessori) are marked repeatedly during childhood, meaning the stages when a child is particularly easy to learn something new qualitatively. Such periods exist for every achievement, be it walking, speaking, discerning colours or (later) reading and counting. This is especially true with regard to speech development, as the child learns his or her native language with little or no effort. It takes years of hard work for an adult to learn a foreign language, which he rarely speaks as well as his mother tongue. Experience has shown that such periods of a child's life should not be missed without trying to help him or her by not encouraging him or her to learn; otherwise, later acquisition of skills and knowledge will require more work. Interfering with a child's learning is just as undesirable as it is useless to push and pull. The child perceives the new better when he or she learns with desire and interest.
Learning to walk implies, first of all, the ability to maintain a balance, and then move forward, and it does not do without certain difficulties. Do not rush to lift the .child whenever he falls, because the efforts he makes to stand up, contribute to strengthening his muscles. He falls, rises, leans on his arms, gets up, falls again. It's not an easy science, but it's absolutely necessary. Before the child learns to speak, he will repeat the same syllables endlessly, just as before, the ability to use the hands required him to exercise for weeks. Therefore, your approval of his efforts and understanding of his needs makes it easier for the child to learn.
Walking transforms a child. If he used to be completely dependent on others, now he doesn't need to ask for someone else, he can go to see close-up what he is interested in, excite his curiosity, and, therefore, every day make a lot of discoveries, gain experience. He becomes mobile, incredibly busy and indefatigable.
Ability to walk entails other consequences, its noticeable. Thanks to him, the child really feels his body, because now he falls, bruises, falls again, bumps into furniture, pinches his fingers, and hurts him. Contusions, bruises and the bumps give him more experience, the more often they are repeated during the day, the more pain he feels. As a result, at 18 months of age, the baby avoids collisions with furniture and bypasses it, knowing that it can cause pain. Thus, having opened his body empirically, the child now shows a close interest in him: for example, having noticed a pimple on his hand, he looks at it for hours; hence the magic power of the bandage that "holds" the individual parts. When the pimple dries up and the crust is rejected, the baby cries, perceiving it as the loss of a piece of his body. A scratch, a drop of blood is also a concern, especially if others exaggerate the significance of such small incidents.