Transition from crawling to walking and infants' actions with objects and people

Abstract

Associations between infants' transition to walking and object activities were examined. Fifty infants were observed longitudinally during home observations. At 11 months, all infants were crawlers; at 13 months, half became walkers. Over age, infants increased their total time with objects and frequency of sharing objects with mothers. Bidirectional influences between locomotion and object actions were found. Walking was associated with new forms of object behaviors: Walkers accessed distant objects, carried objects, and approached mothers to share objects; crawlers preferred objects close at hand and shared objects while remaining stationary. Earlier object activities predicted walking status: Crawlers who accessed distant objects, carried objects, and shared objects over distances at 11 months were more likely to walk by 13 months.

Figure 1

Frequency distributions of infants’ locomotor experience: (A) Crawling experience for all infants (n = 50) at the 11-month session; (B) Crawling experience at 11 months in the group of crawlers (n = 26) who were still crawling at the second session; (C) Crawling experience at 11 months in the group of walkers (n = 24) who began walking at the second session; (D) Crawling experience for crawlers at the 13-month session; (E) Crawling, walking, and total experience for walkers at the 13-month session. Open circles represent individual data and horizontal lines describe group means. The crawler-crawler group includes infants who continued to crawl at 13 months; the crawler-walker group includes infants who began walking by 13 months.

Figure 2

The average number of proximal and distal object episodes for the crawler-crawler and crawler-walker groups at 11 and 13 months of age. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean.

Figure 3

The average number of carrying episodes for the crawler-crawler and crawler-walker groups across age. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean.

Figure 4

The average number of object bids to mothers in the crawler-crawler and crawler-walker groups at 11 and 13 months of age. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean.

Figure 5

The average number of the two forms of object bids (stationary and moving bids) for the crawler-crawler and crawler-walker groups at 11 and 13 months. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean.