OT Series on Self-Help Dressing and Self-Help Skills
Self Help Dressing Games
Judy Benz Duncan, Occupational Therapist
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Being able to get dressed independently is an important childhood milestone but it takes lots of practice, experience, and play to get there.
If you are working on dressing skills with your child, taking the time to play some fun, and educational, dressing games, may help your child make the connections and motor planning skills needed to succeed with self dressing.
There are several games that help with learning self-help dressing skills. Pretend play is a great way to incorporate dressing related activities and games.
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Children learn in different ways so you might need to vary your approach. There are a number of ways in which you can help:
Physically assist your child for success and understanding
Show your child – let them see you do what you are asking
Tell your child – give simple clear cues
Praise all efforts – making an effort is success!
Keep calm – Make it fun – learning comes easier that way!
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Remember, with kids, play is learning!
Have fun with your child with any, and all, of the fun interactive learning game play that follows:
o Play “Simon Says” game where you focus on pointing to and naming body parts (helps in letting your child become more aware of their body, where to look when you say “put your arm in the shirt sleeve,” or “put one foot at a time into your underwear.”)
o Play “Body Part Identification” in the bath or during wash-up time (“can you wiggle your toes, can you wiggle only your big toe, can you touch each finger to your thumb, can you reach around to touch your low back, can you wash the bubbles off your arm, can you put your hands on your waist,” and so on – let your child imitate you if they need the cues for full understanding); Use a stuffed animal in the bath to play this game with as well!
o Practice dressing and undressing a doll or stuffed animal – you can make up a story about them needing to change their clothes to be ready for school, or bed, or because they got their clothes dirty and need to change. Pretend play that they are the parent, or teacher, or doctor, etc, during this pretend play game.
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o Work on undressing as fast as they can – time them and keep a graph or chart of their progress. You can start with just taking off their shoes and socks, to getting totally undressed. It is much easier to work on undressing first as it involves more basic and simpler skills than dressing and having success with this process will give them greater confidence while they develop their skill base.
o Include toys and items in play time where they are working on pulling apart, pushing together, like they may encounter with Velcro straps and other types of clothing fasteners – try magnetic toys, basic dressing training boards, pop-beads, Lego’s or Duplo blocks, strips of Velcro to pull / “tear” apart, big bubble wrap to squish and pop, and so on
o Pretend play dressing box – spend some play time in pretend play with capes, hats, scarves, slip on shoes, loose fitting pull-over shirts, loose elastic waist pants, easy on jackets, etc, old costumes; take some pictures of the different looks and outfits your child tries on!
o “Hide,” or partially hide, small stuffed animals, colorful strips of fabric or wide ribbon, in your child’s pocket, waist band, sticking out of their sock or shoe, inside their shirt, etc., and see how fast they can find and pull out. Talk about what they found, the color, where it was, and praise how quickly they were able to find! Can they hide these items on you? If they will keep their eyes shut while you hide that’s great – they will still feel the tactile / sensory input as you do reach into a pocket or under their shirt. If they cannot tolerate on themselves, try playing the game hiding the items on a dressed stuffed animal friend.
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o Cut slits through a heavy piece of cardboard – take a handful of large buttons and have your child push each one through the slit to come out the other side – see how fast they can get 5 or 10 through the slits. See if they can hold and push with thumb and 2 fingers, or if they need you to help, get the button started into the slit and then let them finish pushing it through. Give the help they need and let them do the rest! When the cardboard activity becomes too easy, move it up to using a heavy piece of fabric or actual piece of clothing (much harder to manage and control).
o Place a hula hoop on the ground – have your child step into it, reach down and then bring up and over their head, to play down in front of them to continue with action all the way across the room. You can add strips of fabric around the hoop so your child feels the cloth as they pull the hoop up, over, and off their head.
o Take an adult sized long-sleeved shirt or jacket, seal the cuffs with elastic bands and then hide small soft and stuffed toys down each sleeve. Have your child reach into the sleeve and pull out each toy one at a time.
o Try BIG lacing cards, Connect Four game, play-dough fun, dressing toys and sets, sticker books – look around your house and in the toy box to see what you can find, re-purpose it’s use, and above all, turn into play-time learning!
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OT Series: Self-Help Dressing & Self-Help Skills Continues!
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