Can stand with support

Your Child is now able to stand while holding on to something for support — being able to take the first step may just be a few weeks away.

At around 9 – 12 months of age, many children begin to bear weight on their legs and stand up while holding on to something or someone for support. Not only does standing use a lot of muscle in the legs, but it also engages most of the major muscles in the body, even though the little one is being supported. This is one of the major milestones before the child will be able to take the first step.

As Your Child will soon start standing or cruising around the furniture, you should, now more than ever, make sure that the house is safe and that there are no sharp edges or hazardous objects the little one can accidentally grab on to for support when standing up.

How to support this development
Practice makes perfect! Keep supporting and encouraging Your Child to stand up. It helps to have lots of heavy chairs, benches, and other safe and steady objects around for your little one to pull themself up. If there are objects that could fall down or over, make sure you fix them to the wall or remove them. You can also turn on some music or use toys to make the practice more fun.

Note: All children develop differently and at their own pace. For children born preterm, the referred timeframe for achieving the various developmental milestones might be incorrect.

Source: The information and graphs about when children reach specific milestones are taken from various sources, including the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC), the Denver Developmental Screening Test, and the State Institute of Early Childhood Research, Germany (IFP).