---
title: "Walking: Creating Opportunities"
description: We often hear that your little one is on the verge of walking but they just won’t do it on their own consistently. This is very common. What we like to do is create opportunities for them to work on standing balance and taking some steps. This happens by setting up the environment to encourage […]
---

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# Walking: Creating Opportunities

![default-image](https://www.starfishtherapies.com/hubfs/raw_assets/public/Starfish/images/custom-images/default-image.svg)

![](https://www.starfishtherapies.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/IMG_4048-225x300-1.jpg?width=225&height=300&name=IMG_4048-225x300-1.jpg)

We often hear that your little one is on the verge of walking but they just won’t do it on their own consistently. This is very common. What we like to do is create opportunities for them to work on standing balance and taking some steps. This happens by setting up the environment to encourage these skills.

What does this look like you may wonder.

- Have various surfaces around that can be stood at. This could be an activity table, the little balance box, an upside down laundry basket, diaper boxes, coffee table, couch, chairs, push toys, etc.
- Have space between some of the items so that once they are standing they can choose to move (cruise, walk, crawl) to another surface. If you can space out toys on the surfaces this also works great too.
- Encouraging cruising along walls and/or with only one hand on the surface
- Encourage them to come to you rather than you go to them. They may crawl but they may also try to take a few steps or even just let go and stand for a second before going down to crawling.

This video has some examples of what opportunities to stand and walk can look like!

Also, check out our YouTube [walking and standing balance](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_LHP8Z5Gpd8O2hSH6Ceq1yvud41xtEzv) playlist as well as our [pre-walker gross motor program](https://starfishtherapies.com/product/gmp-pre-walker/)!

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