This study examined the influence of age, crawling‐onset age, and crawling experience on infants’ adaptive behavior in situations that can lead to dangerous falls. Thirty‐one infants with variable amounts of crawling experience were tested in a new paradigm that used a real cliff and a water cliff, with a harness system to guarantee safety. Consistent with previous findings obtained in studies with real and visual cliffs, infants with more crawling experience were more likely to avoid the real cliff. More importantly, greater crawling experience was associated with a greater likelihood of avoiding the water cliff. The new paradigm offers exciting opportunities to study the development of adaptive behavior in risky environments.

During the first months of post-natal life, an infant's size, body's proportions and action capabilities change dramatically. Once they can self-locomote, a whole new world opens up for infants as they are now able to pursue goals at a distance, change their location, adopt new vantage points for viewing the environment and explore objects, events and people that were previously inaccessible. This exploratory activity has an important role in development, leading to great advances in motor, perceptual and psychological function-

Ramps used to access swimming pools are designed with a shallow slope that affords easy access for all including infants. Locomotor experience has been linked to infants’ avoidance of falling into the water from drop‐offs; however, the effect of such experience on infants’ behavior when a slope is offered to access the water has not been addressed. Forty‐three crawling infants (Mage = 10.63 ± 1.91 months; Mcrawling = 2.38 ± 1.77 months) and 34 walking infants (Mage = 14.90 ± 2.18 months; Mwalking = 2.59 ± 1.56 months) were tested on a new Water Slope paradigm, a sloped surface (10°) leading to deep water. No association between infants’ avoidance of submersion and locomotor experience was found. Comparison with the results of infants’ behavior on the water cliff revealed that a greater proportion of infants reached the submersion point on the water slope than fell into the water cliff. Collectively, these results indicate a high degree of specificity in which locomotor experience teaches infants about risky situations. Importantly, sloped access to deep water appears to increase the risk of infants moving into the water thereby making them more vulnerable to drowning.