When/How did your babies/toddlers learn to go down the stairs?

Discussion in 'The Toddler Years(1-3)' started by jjzollman, Mar 4, 2009.

  1. jjzollman

    jjzollman Well-Known Member

    My 14-month-olds are in varying stages of going up the stairs - Finley goes up without any problems and Sullivan, who is a bit more hesitant, goes up a few and then stops. Now Finley will get to the top (with me or DH right behind him) and then he'll want to come down. Our pedi suggested teaching them to go down backwards on their bellies/kind of crawling down, if that makes sense. So, we turn Finley so he is looking at the steps and help him go down - but he clearly doesn't reall get what we are doing yet. So, I'm just curious as to when your babies/toddlers figured out how to go down the stairs and did you teach them? Did they figure it out by themselves? What method do they use to go down?

    Thanks! :)
     
  2. sharongl

    sharongl Well-Known Member

    We taught them by putting 2 2-step stepstools back to back, so they could climb up and down them. We actually taught them to do the stairs before they could walk, and they continued crawling up and down them until they were around 2.
     
  3. Becca34

    Becca34 Well-Known Member

    This is something Kevan's physical therapist has been working on -- so, at 19 months, he learned to crawl down the stairs on his stomach. (I'm really not sure how she taught him.)

    Karina prefers to scoot down on her bottom, and figured it out herself awhile ago. I'd say neither of them had any clue before 18 months....but, it's not something we worked on, either.

    We're now working on walking down while holding the rail, but they haven't gotten it yet. (Kevan does have some delays.) I'm not sure what the average age for this stuff is?
     
  4. MichelleL

    MichelleL Well-Known Member

    I would crawl behind them taking their foot and saying "foot" and then taking a hand and saying "hand", and then repeating on the other side of their body. So all the way down I grabbed either foot or hand saying "foot...hand...foot...hand..." to teach them that way. I don't remember when we started this. It was winter, so it had to be about 15-16 months. We walked behind them for a very long time before we left them on their own.
     
  5. nurseandrea02

    nurseandrea02 Well-Known Member

    We started a few steps at a time when teaching them to go down. They easily mastered going up on their own ;). We always reiterate, at the top of the stairs, to "go down on their belly", so they turn around & crawl down.

    That being said, Aiden is getting quite brave lately. He seems to believe he doesn't NEED to go down on his belly, so we're CONSTANTLY telling him to do so. Sunday morning he started going down as Conner took off upstairs, so DH went after Conner (he was going down with them) & when he did, we both watched as Aiden turned around & attempted to go down the stairs that way...only to fall 3/4 the way down. Luckily it was carpeted & he was totally unharmed, but it was scary.

    So, at 19 mos, I guess I have to say we STILL haven't mastered it. I cannot tell you how eager I am to get rid of the stupid gate at the top of the stairs (the bottom, too, but more so the top), but I guess it's not for some time still, thanks to my little daredevil.....
     
  6. TwinLove

    TwinLove Well-Known Member

    I never did the crawling down the stair backwards thing. I taught them to go down holding my hand and one foot at a time. It was tough at the beginning when their legs were shorter :huh: and coming down with two of them wasn't easy at all but they got it fairly quickly. :good: By 18 months they were coming down alone, but I was right there.
     
  7. HRE

    HRE Well-Known Member

    I taught mine to crawl down as soon as they figured out how to crawl up, so aroun 8 months. I figured that way they were safe where ever we went and there were stairs. I taught them to crawl backwards on their tummies by bringing their feet down and basically slowly pulling them down. Honestly, I did this with all my kids, and they all learned to come down with in a day or two of going up.
     
  8. debid

    debid Well-Known Member

    T&T learned to climb up as soon as they could reach with their short little legs and down a couple weeks later. I did teach them to go down backward on bellies because they weren't walking yet (I would guess they were 8-9 months?) As they got bigger, they started demanding to go "like mommy" so we switched to walking down holding my hand and then walking down holding the spindles. All I had to do was threaten to carry them and they'd go whichever way I said :lol:
     
  9. jjzollman

    jjzollman Well-Known Member

    Thanks everyone for your ideas!! Finley seems to be catching on to the going down on his belly thing. :)
     
  10. rrodman

    rrodman Well-Known Member

    QUOTE(mama23boys @ Mar 4 2009, 10:38 AM) [snapback]1213941[/snapback]
    My 14-month-olds are in varying stages of going up the stairs - Finley goes up without any problems and Sullivan, who is a bit more hesitant, goes up a few and then stops. Now Finley will get to the top (with me or DH right behind him) and then he'll want to come down. Our pedi suggested teaching them to go down backwards on their bellies/kind of crawling down, if that makes sense. So, we turn Finley so he is looking at the steps and help him go down - but he clearly doesn't reall get what we are doing yet. So, I'm just curious as to when your babies/toddlers figured out how to go down the stairs and did you teach them? Did they figure it out by themselves? What method do they use to go down?

    Thanks! :)


    They are just figuring it out. Anna goes down on her belly, and Jack goes down on his butt. They seemed to just intuitively get it. We still supervise, but much to our exhaustion, going up and down the steps is a favorite passtime!
     
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