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atlantis's avatar

What is going through the mind of a child just learning to walk?

Asked by atlantis (1867points) August 18th, 2011

Do you remember when you were just learning to walk or talk? What do you think a toddler is thinking?

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14 Answers

lucillelucillelucille's avatar

I do.I walked the day of my first birthday.
I was probably thinking…“I want that cake.” :)

Paul's avatar

I do not although I was probably thinking something along the lines of “this floors so dirty, I better get off it” my mother often tells me how I hated to crawl.

Pandora's avatar

Why doesn’t this ride come with hand rails?
Why does it feel all warm and squishy when I fall on my butt?
How come the ground doesn’t shake under everyone else?
I can do it! I can do it! Plop! WHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAA! I can’t do it. Stupid floor!

ucme's avatar

Shock & awe in equal measure i’d have thought.
Wow do I remember when my kids took their first tentative steps. What an absolutely magical, fantastic, emotional moment that is. I’m man enough to admit I shed a tear or two out of sheer bloody pride. That’s right…i’m soft as shite!

poisonedantidote's avatar

Disbelieve me if you like, you probably will, but I can remember very far back in life, and I can even recall some thoughts as if they happened yesterday.

When I was a small child I was given a toy that I’m sure you all had. You get a round peg, a square peg, a triangular peg, and a star shaped one, and you have to put the pegs in the correct hole… You know the thing I mean. Anyway, when I first had this toy, I knew instantly that the round peg would not go in the star shaped hole, I did not need to try and put it in to find out that it would not go in or not, I knew just by looking that it would not go in. However, I still tried to put it in the wrong hole, because I wanted to see why it would not fit. I still remember when I started to put the pegs in the correct holes how my father said “he is starting to get the hang of it now” as I thought to my self “oh wow, these people don’t even know that I already know what the correct holes are”.

A very similar thing happened when I was learning to walk. My parents thought that I had a problem standing or walking as they tried to teach me, but I could have walked if I wanted to. However I chose to experiment with contrasting walking and crawling. For quite some time I would switch between walking and crawling, until my parents finally told me “no more crawling” because they had now figured out I could walk.

What I’m getting at is… Because of my own personal experiences, I suspect children never “learn” to walk. They just wake up one day and are strong enough to walk now if they want to. It is highly probable that children “learning” to walk are just experimenting and playing with it.

I still remember my mothers pride at me when I used the toilet for the first time. While the entire time I was thinking “I could have crapped in that thing any time I wanted to, you just never let me before”.

Children of that age are probably much much smarter than we give them credit for, and I think it is probably more likely that we just don’t understand their behaviour.

Paul's avatar

@poisonedantidote Smart toddler you were. You make a good point though, They just wake up one day and are strong enough to walk now if they want to.

gailcalled's avatar

“You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out…”

Paul's avatar

@gailcalled clearly learned to dance before she could walk.

Tbag's avatar

” I’m already starting to miss that fresh natural milk ”

CaptainHarley's avatar

“Ohhhh LOOK!”

“Ohhhh! Look at THAT!”

“Ohhhh! What’s THIS?”

Sunny2's avatar

If the face on my kid’s first walking experience is any indication: wonder, joy, and triumph. Followed by the crushing defeat of sitting down hard.

bkcunningham's avatar

Like every child; from crawling to walking, I was looking for the car keys.

Hibernate's avatar

We’ll never know this.

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