Teaching your child how to go up and down the stairs safely is important to teach your child to safely go up and down the stairs as well as using safety precautions while you are not. Falling down the stairs can cause serious injures including broken bones, head injuries, and the possibility of death. Teaching them to master going up and down the stairs comes first with time. As their motor skills get better and they grow enough to make the steps easier to take, mastering the stairs will become easier.
In the meantime, you can help your children learn how to master the stairs as they grow. Most of this teaching is down by experimenting and actively using the stairs, but there is some talking you can do to help your toddler. Using comments like telling them to go slow and not to hurry when you are going down the stairs with your toddler. Remember to always explain why by telling them they will fall if they don’t go slow.
Teaching your child to go up the stairs first before learning to go down the stairs is the best. If you have stairs at home then you can begin with moving the gate at the bottom of the stairs up about three steps. By leaving these three steps on the bottom open for your child to play on, you will give them the chance to experiment with going up and down the stairs. This will help more with going up instead of going down. Also if they happen to fall down the stairs they only have a step or two to go and not all the way down.
When teaching them to go down the stairs, they will most likely begin with sliding down while sitting first before moving towards standing. You can also go with them holding their hand at first as the learn to coordinate their feet and the height of the steps. If you placed a railing at their level in, encourage them to use the railing for support while going up and down. When you move to letting them go up and down on their own, but still under your supervision, always stand below them whether you are following them up or going down in front of them. This way they can practice on their own while still having you there in case something were to happen.
Always use supervision while you are working with your child with no gates up. If you happen to get distracted by the phone, then pick up your child and take them with you. If you don’t have stairs at home, you can take your child to a place that does have stairs. Even a little practice at stairs connected to playground equipment is a good place to begin. These stairs are built with the size of a child in mind so they come equipped with railings and size of the steps at their size.
Teaching your child how to use the stair by coaching and practice will help them to conquer going up and down the stairs when they are ready to go on their own. This will prevent accidents from happening that might result in serious injuries. Remember to work on going up the stairs before you work on going down the stairs. In time, your child will have mastered the stairs.
