Inquiry: Are Late Talkers Early Walkers (& vice versa)?

[Lois Bloom]

In response to your query, the following summarizes some relevant findings
from my longitudinal study of 14 infants (beginning at 9 months until
after the emergence of syntax at 2 years on average).

"We used two measures of general maturation: age of walking and block
building (stacking 1-in. cubes to form a tower).  On both measures, the
children developed within normal limits [according to published 'norms'].
The mean age of walking (2 independent steps unaided) was 12.6 months, and
the range was from 10 to 14 months.  The block building task was
administered at home every 3 months.  Of the 11 children who were
presented with the task, none succeeded in building a tower of six blocks
without direct help at 18 months; 7 succeeded at 21 months and the 4
others succeeded subsequently.  The important finding was that both
progress in walking and the ability to stack the 1-in. cubes were
unrelated to any other developments in language, affect expression, or
play with objects, as will be shown in the later chapters.  We have
interpreted these results to mean that the developmental interactions we
observed among language, affect expression, and object play were a
function of fundamental underlying cognitive processes and not simply
attributable to maturation" (Bloom, 1993, p. 118).

--Lois Bloom