Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York, USA.
Department of Kinesiology, California State University, Fullerton, California, USA.
Dev Psychobiol. 2021 Nov;63(7):e22187. doi: 10.1002/dev.22187.
Infant walking skill improves with practice-crudely estimated by elapsed time since walk onset. However, despite the robust relation between elapsed time (months walking) and skill, practice is likely constrained and facilitated by infants' home environments, sociodemographic influences, and spontaneous activity. Individual pathways are tremendously diverse in the timing of walk onset and the trajectory of improvement, and presumably, in the amount and type of practice. So, what factors affect the development of walking skill? We examined the role of months walking, walk onset age, spontaneous locomotor activity, body dimensions, and environmental factors on the development of walking skill in two sociodemographically distinct samples (ns = 38 and 44) of 13-, 15-, and 19-month-old infants. Months walking best predicted how well infants walked, but environmental factors and spontaneous activity explained additional variance in walking skill. Specifically, less crowded homes, a larger percentage of time in spontaneous walking, and a smaller percentage of short walking bouts predicted more mature walking. Walk onset age differed by sample but did not affect walking skill. Findings indicate that elapsed time since walk onset remains a robust predictor of walking skill, but environmental factors and spontaneous activity also contribute to infants' practice, thereby affecting walking skill.
婴儿的行走技能会随着练习而提高——这可以粗略地通过行走开始以来的时间来估计。然而，尽管行走时间（月数）与技能之间存在很强的关系，但实践可能受到婴儿的家庭环境、社会人口因素和自发活动的限制和促进。在行走开始的时间和技能提高的轨迹上，以及在练习的数量和类型上，个体的发展路径差异极大。那么，哪些因素会影响行走技能的发展呢？我们研究了在两个具有不同社会人口统计学特征的样本（ns=38 和 44）中，月龄、行走开始年龄、自发运动活动、身体尺寸和环境因素对 13、15 和 19 个月大的婴儿行走技能发展的影响。月龄最能预测婴儿的行走能力，但环境因素和自发活动解释了行走技能的额外差异。具体来说，家庭拥挤程度较低、自发行走时间比例较高、短行走时间比例较低，预示着更成熟的行走能力。行走开始年龄因样本而异，但不影响行走技能。研究结果表明，行走开始以来的时间仍然是行走技能的一个强有力的预测因素，但环境因素和自发活动也有助于婴儿的练习，从而影响行走技能。
