We live in a two floor home and my 13 month old daughter is great at going UP the stairs (with me right behind her). At some point I'll need to teach her how to go DOWN safely. What's the best way to teach her and at what age should we start? Do they go down backwards, or forwards and scoot down each step?
Thanks!
My 15-month old daughter is learning to go down the front porch stairs backwards, scooting down backwards. I remember with my son (who is now 15 years old), he learned at around 1 year old to scoot down backwards in my mom's 2-story house.
Hi A.
I remember years ago...my parents taught me to scoot down on my butt to begin with then hold on to the wall or bannister and step down slowely..be next to her the whole time until you can see she is comfortable...each child does different things at a different age so I'd say try it and if she's not ready yet she'll let you know.
Hope this helps
D.
Make sure she starts backwards, they get a better grip when they are on their stomach, at least it worked for mine. But only when she is being supervised by you. Eventualy she will start climbing when you are not around, please make sure you have one of those gates on the stairs when you are busy, because when you least expect it she will be up the stairs, in a blink of an eye. By my own experience kids tend to explore evreything, and they also think they could do everything.
My daughter is now two and we live in a second story apartment - lots of experience with up and down stairs. The advice I would give is let your daughter take the lead in terms of how and when she's ready to go down. With my daughter I did a lot of walking downstairs backwards while facing her and holding her hand. Showing her how to hold the handrail or the wall was also helpful.
Start with her going down the stairs backwards, that way if she slips she would be going feet first. Then when she gets good at that then you can teach her to go forwrds on her bottom and then progress from there.
We let my son slide down the stairs feet first on his tummy, He loved it and it was safe. He learned how because the first couple of times we gently dragged him down the stairs (obviously they were carpeted). After a while he learned to carefully put his leg over the top step and kind of crawl backwards down the stairs. Even if he slipped he never went rolling down because he would fall into the stairs.
Good luck
xx
G.
My daughter learned to go downstairs scooting down on her bottom much before she could walk. She did not like to turn backwards where she could not see. She became very adept very quickly. Make it fun.
Hi A., my son is 14 mos. and his physical therapist just taught him how to go down the stairs backwards yesterday. He has a tendency to go forwards (hands first) and whined when we didn't help him. Then he realized to go down feet first when the therapist showed him how. Good luck!
Do you have a hand rail or railings to hold onto? I started my kids really early, walking as they normally would but HOLDING on. (I said it really emphatically, like in capital letters):)
At 17 months, my daughter was telling me to hold on. She is 20 months now and very safe and steady on the stairs. And she always holds on to something. She naturally sits and scoots if she doesn't have a good handrail or one she can't reach...their instinct take over if they are careful kids.
I would try to help my kids learn to go down the stairs by holding their hands and have them practicing taking steps down. Since that was to advanced for them to do by themselves, they learned their own way in the meantime: They 1st learned to go down the stairs with their tummies facing the floor (head upright) and then scooting down the stairs. Later they learned to scoot down the stairs on their butt. And months later, they would hold on to the railing or wall for support (or me) and step down with the right foot, put the left foot on the same step, then step down with the right foot (down the next step), etc. Now they fly up and down the stairs. Hope this helps.
Try to teach your daughter as soon as possible. The easiest and safest is to teach her to go down the stairs sitting down and scooting down one step at a time. Do it with her when you're teaching her and make it fun!
Dear A.,
Teach your daughter to go down backwards or by sitting and going down one step at a time.
Good luck.
L.
hey A.- I taught our kids every way so that they could figure out what worked best for them...and i started really young. I also took the time to show them how to "slide" off the couch and the side of the bed- in an effort to avoid falling off of them. so far, no accidents. good luck.
