Do you help your kid to get dressed every morning before he goes to school? Maybe the routine or the usual day rush makes you try to do everything fast, but stop, although taking the control is the easiest option, your child needs to learn how to take care of himself. Getting dressed is an ability that builds confidence and independence, and once a child is an expert, its one less thing to do as parent. The task is a complete learning, fine, gross, language and cognitive skills can be developed with activities such as: fasten buttons, picking out the right clothes (color and size), putting on the shoes, getting socks in the right way, doing up zips and others.
When is time to let your child to get dressed? It depends, usually from three years and up. Observe the signals, the interest and independence he shows about it. When you decide, it is time to start make some arrangements as have easy clothes on hand as elastic waisted pants (no zips or buttons) or t-shirts with pictures on the front and try to have clothes that are comfortable for your child to move in. Also, a good way to teach your child how to get dressed is to establish a basic group to steps to follow: pick up the clothes, put on the socks, then the pants and t-shirt, the shoes, and the last one, the sweater. Try to be supportive and you will see that your child will be more likely to cooperate. Remember that the time you need to get ready is not the same for him, so think about a realistic scenario considering he is learning. Another excellent tip is practice when you and your kid are not tired or in a hurry. Teach him to choose the adequate clothes if it is a hot, cold, a raining or a sunny day. It is also important to talk about the importance of using clean clothes, specially socks and underwear. And maybe the best is to teach undressing first as the primary task in this journey to independence.
Children show different dressing skills at different ages, but you can have an idea of what they are capable of doing, following this list:
At one year your child should pull her socks and shoes off, hold her arms out for sleeves, put her foot up for shoes.
At two years your kid should be able to take off an unfastened coat and take off his shoes when the laces are untied, also find armholes in t-shirts.
At three years your child could put on t-shirts with little help, put on his shoes (maybe on the wrong foot) and put on his socks, zip and unzip, button large front buttons.
At four years your child will able to take off t-shirts by herself, connect her jacket zipper and zip it up, put on the socks the right way and the shoes with little help.
And finally at five years your child should get dressed without help or supervision.
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