Anyone else feel wistful about ‘missed’ milestones with a late walker?

[Orangexup]

(I do have bigger things to worry about than this, of course. That said…)

DS is 18 months and is still a good few months off walking independently. He’s a ‘big lad’ and so once he is walking, he’ll just look like a regular toddler rather than a cute little baby. I sometimes I feel wistful at some of the milestones we’ve missed. For example, I had visions of him stomping around in the puddles, or toddling around soft play.

I also worry he’s missing out a little on play opportunities at nursery because the other babies his age are walking.

I’m probably not articulating myself very well but I wondered if any other mums of late walkers could relate?

Thank you, I'm am very proud.

I am also enormously greatful, and always will be, to the leader of the playgroup (attached to the school) who identified the problem and started the referral process when my DD wasn't quite 3 (and all whilst earning little more than minimum wage, which makes me angry). She is also a mum at the School, and when my DD was 6 and had more lines than any other kids her age in the school play, in her second language, and enunciated and projected them amazingly well, the playgroup leader told me she was close to tears.

I hope your kids speech comes on soon, SALT is difficult when they are little. I found the Nick Sharratt books (Unicorn moonicorn, moo cow kung foo cow etc) really helpful as they are good fun and play around with sounds and words.

My dd was a bum shuffler and surprisingly speedy tbh. She walked at 18 months and in the space of a few days she went from never having stood up to walking and running. Within a couple of weeks there was no discernible difference in ability between her and my neice the same age who walked at 9 months. My others who had crawled walked at 18 months as well so she wasn't late by our standards.

Aw that is so nice, it takes one person to notice and make the difference. My sons nursery were brilliant with referrals and support, and i think they have done more in the way of helping him than SALT have, not that I'm getting down on SALT, its just that I suspect my son also has ADHD, so during the sessions hes never able to maintain attention for too long and also doesn't like that he doesn't know the person properly and just tries to leave. But we soldier on!

That is so beautiful about her play, she sounds like such an intelligent little girl and I bet it meant the world to her to be able to perform in it so well, and in her second language too! Incredible.

I will have a look into those books; he does love books so he may engage more with them, thank you!

I think this comment was misjudged. I haven’t raised any concerns about my son’s development, nor asked for help in that regard. To post a random questionnaire and say you think it would be “really worth” filling it out was inappropriate, and could have been quite upsetting.

The other thing the playgroup did for DD was we gave them copies of all the activites the SALT gave DD and they integrated them into group activities for all the kids to do together. It was lovely.

It wasn’t meant to upset you. Bum shuffling doesn’t necessarily mean that your DC has ASD but from this study, just under half did have ASD so i think it is worth filling in a screening assessment. Your DS scored a really low score though so that’s good?

My post was meant with kindness. When I posted about my DD some years ago, no one ever mentioned the possibility of ASD. Given that outcomes are so much better if you have support in place early, I really wish they had.

Anyway, I’ll bow out of the thread now, I really didn’t mean any offence.

To reassure you OP my dd who was a bum shuffler is not autistic but her brother and sister who crawled are both autistic.

@Orangexup she has a lazy eye as well, so we went for a referral based on that but it turns out her vision is atrocious in both eyes. She was mark making, doing puzzles, feeding herself etc all well ahead of her cousins so we had no reason to think her vision could be affecting her.

That study is only based on 48 children which is a very small number and only includes children referred to a particular clinic perhaps due to multiple concerns about their development. If it’s anything like the UK lots of bum shufflers will never have paediatric review.

Bum shuffling is more associated with hypotonia and hypermobility than autism but those traits are more common in autistic people than neurotypical people hence the connection.

No, my kids are teenagers now and I can't remember anything they did at that age.

That sample size is so small it essentially renders any findings meaningless.

At 18 months I don't think I'd be worrying. As for puddles etc. that's more age 2 plus anyway.

By the time they are preschoolers the basics are usually in place.