Walking Development essays

Walking Development essays While walking, the adults show great control over their bodies. They move their shoulders when going through narrow spaces, change the length of their stride to step on target spots, and keep their balance as they move along the path theyre following. Adults can control their walking with ease. Walking isnt so easy for an infant. Learning these skills takes a long time to learn. Becoming an expert at walking takes a long time with many successes and failures. When infants finally do walk for the first time, it often isnt very pretty. Their legs are spread apart, they walk flat-footed, and they keep their arms high in order for protection (Jordet 1). It just takes time for an infant to learn to walk, and it is especially difficult for them to make it over uneven terrain. A famous study done involves a see-through Plexiglas sheet over top of stair-like terrain. One part of the terrain was close underneath the Plexiglas while the other part was much further below it. Toddlers learning to deal with this problem were hesitant at first to cross over the drop-off, but later on, they walked across the whole thing without hesitation. It took some time for the toddlers to learn how to deal with the visual deception but eventually overcame it (Development 305-306). The same thing happens when learning to deal with slopes. It takes time for a toddler to learn to manage the slope. Experience with the slopes doesnt seem to be a factor though. Toddlers not exposed to slopes learn how to deal with slopes at the same rate as toddlers who do have exposure to the slopes. This may be due to maturation of the toddler and/or experience with walking in general (Development 311-312). Just having walking experience itself seems to help the toddler improve. It doesnt necessarily have to be on a specific type of terrain. The only difference between a toddler with the exposure to slopes and toddlers wi...