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Equifinality in infancy: The many paths to walking

Joshua L Schneider1, Jana M Iverson1

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

Developmental Psychobiology
|February 22, 2023
PubMed

Insights

Infants exhibit diverse developmental paths to walking, with varied practice in crawling and supported upright movement. Locomotor development shows significant individual variability regardless of when walking onset occurs.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Motor Development
  • Infant Locomotion

Background:

  • Human development often involves multiple pathways to achieve similar outcomes.
  • Understanding the specific routes to infant walking onset is crucial for developmental research.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the diverse patterns of infant locomotion leading to the onset of walking.
  • To analyze the variability in movement strategies employed by infants before they start walking independently.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal study of 30 prewalking infants over two months prior to walking onset.
  • Observation of infant locomotion patterns during everyday home activities.
  • Quantification of time spent in prone (crawling) versus upright supported (cruising/supported walking) positions.

Main Results:

  • Significant variability observed in infants' practice of crawling, cruising, and supported walking.
  • Some infants showed balanced practice, while others specialized or switched between methods.
  • Infants generally spent more movement time in upright supported positions than in prone positions.

Conclusions:

  • Infants follow numerous distinct and variable paths to achieve walking onset.
  • Locomotor development is characterized by individual differences in movement strategy and practice.
  • The age of walking onset does not dictate the specific developmental trajectory followed.

Keywords:
crawlingcruisingindividual differencesinfant locomotionnaturalistic observationsprewalking infantssupported walking

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