Self Help and Home Activities - Dressing
Self Help and Home Activities - Dressing
Judy Benz Duncan, Occupational Therapist
Even very young children will try to help dress themselves. Maybe it is just putting out their arms or holding a leg up to help you put their clothes on, but they do start to help at a very young age. The more your child can do to participate, the more time you have to manage other things!
Self care dressing seems to be a task that most children wish to be independent with as soon as possible, even if it is just being able to pull off their own clothes when they want!
Some of the skills required for self dressing include:
motor planning (where and how to put an arm or leg into the clothes)
visual perception, where they can tell the difference between a shirt or pants, color, or pattern, front from back
muscle strength
balance
sensory tolerance
endurance
postural control
right-left discrimination
tactile discrimination
crossing midline
bilateral integration
sequencing skills
fine motor skills at a functional level
focus and attention
As you can see, a simple task such as getting dressed involves numerous underlying components as well as the ability to coordinate “putting everything together” in a reasonable amount of time.
For children with a sensory processing disorder, sensory integration issue, developmental delay, or behavioral concerns, achieving independence in self help dressing skills can be extremely difficult. For parents and caregivers it can often result in frustration, added family stress, anxiety, and even anger.
As you work, practice and pretend play with your child try to be aware of which components your child seems to be having the most difficulty with. For example:
Do they have the most trouble just knowing how to start or finish dressing?
Do they have difficulty keeping their balance when putting on a pair of underwear or pants?
Do they have difficulty with being able to tolerate certain types of clothing, tags, or textures?
Keep track of what issues you may see on a regular basis so that you can discuss these with your child’s service providers in order to work on specific activities addressing these skills and concerns.
Some ideas and different activities you may choose follow below. Start where the child is at and work from there - with everything, stay calm, practice, repeat, provide lots of opportunities.
It's much easier for your child to learn how to undress before dressing. Therefore, practice taking off their socks and shoes first - these seem to be the easiest for a child to pull or kick off.
Have a “put away spot” for their socks, shoes, clothes for when they take them off - try not to let them just toss them where they stand, but help to clean up and put away, even if you have to help them carry items to where they go!
Practice Backward Chaining for all articles of clothing. You help them complete putting on the shirt, or underwear, or socks down to the very last step, then help them to finish. Once they are able to do the very last step, then stop where they have to complete the last two steps, and so on, until they are able to fully complete the task. (for example, push their sock down to their toes and then ask them to pull or push the sock the rest of the way off - next time push the sock down to the top of the foot and let them push or pull or kick it the rest of the way off. Continue on, stopping at the heel, the ankle, and mid calf if they wear knee socks - each time having your child finish up. You can reverse the process and pull on the sock to above the ankle and then ask them to pull the rest of the way to “work out the wrinkles.” Continue with practice and repeat and practice and repeat until they are able to put their own socks on and off.
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Play pretend play dress up using over-sized clothes, costumes, and even some of your clothes
Practice dressing their doll or teddy bear
Give them a laundry basket full of socks all mixed up and ask them to help sort and match - ask them to try on each pair of socks to “check for holes” and have a fun mixed up sock day where you practice putting on mix-matched socks just for the fun of it!
If your child has clothes they will not wear, or loves to wear, ask them to help you sort their clothes, trying on if they will, and mark the ones that they like and do not like. Put in the dresser or hang in the closet where the “special” ones or the ones they like are right there to pick from. Remind them those are the ones that they like and that they helped pick out so that when it comes time to find some clothes, they should already know that those will “work.”
You can do the same with socks - keep all the socks that have “passed inspection” in a special drawer - let your child know that they have already checked those out and each one is ready to go on their feet
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If they want to wear mix-matched clothes for the day let them! Make it a mixed up clothes day and take pictures to celebrate their creativity
One of the earliest play activities that you can do for early dressing skills is playing peek-a-boo. Peek-a-boo works on simple skills of reaching up to the top of your head to pull a shirt, towel, scarf, or even hat, off your head, down over your face, or even pull your head through the opening in a shirt in order to play. Fun time is play time, and play time is learning time!
Try cutting colorful socks (knee high if possible) into strips making stretchy bands then see how many bands your can pull up onto their foot and up their leg. If you get a better response, see if they will “dress you” in the bands. See how many they can fit onto their leg. See how fast they can get them on. See how fast they can take them off one at a time. How high can you get them up your leg?
Try the same idea using t-shirts cut up into loops/strips, but this time they need to pull them all the way up to their waist.
Name each piece of clothing, whether it is a shoe, a hat, underwear, etc., and include where they wear that piece of clothing - “Lets put the hat on your head,” or “Lets put your arms, through the shirt.”
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Start with only giving a limited selection of clothes to wear for the day. Let them pick out 1 shirt, or pair of pants from a choice of only 2.
Make the time to practice dressing - being rushed in the morning may not be the best time. Try practice at night when they are changing their clothes, at bath-time, and when you can take the extra time to work on this.
If the mornings are too hectic, work with your child to pick out the clothes for the day the night before. Let them try on the clothes if they need to so they “know” they will be OK.
Practice, practice, practice, every day - at whatever time works for you and your child. Even if the practice is only for a few moments, try to work that practice and experience time in. Try to avoid these practice sessions when you or your child are tired, overwhelmed, or do not have enough time to not feel rushed.
For an easier time for your child, try providing clothes that have elastic waist bands, Velcro-type closures, large sized buttons, clothes that are looser for improved success in putting them on and taking them off. Reduce any struggle they may have while they are learning.
Try giving clothes that have a picture or other “marker” on them so your child will know quicker which way is the front or back. If you have to buy clothes without tags sometimes it makes it harder to see which way to put the shirt or pants on. For clothes without pictures or brand-name icons on them you could put a sticker, pieces of colored tape, or colored sticker disc on the front, then remove after dressing or at least before you wash the clothes!
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Jackets and coats where the inside is a different color or has a different pattern on it will help your child know which side out is the right way.
When wearing winter clothes, rain jackets, sweaters, other weather related clothes, use that time as a learning experience and talk about the weather and why they need to wear those types of clothing.
Another use of stickers, pieces of colored tape, or colored sticker discs is to put several on the back of your child’s pants, on a back pocket, on their socks, etc., after they have them on - for fun have them try to reach around and pull them off. This fun activity helps them become more aware of their body and helps teach them to reach around, reach behind, and reach down to all the hard to reach places that relate to dressing (pulling up pants in the back, pulling the wrinkles out of their socks, and so on).
You can change this “sticker” activity by using clothes pins - make a game of how fast they can pin them onto their clothes and then take them off. You can help place the clothes pins in harder to reach areas. They may want to use a dressing mirror to help see where they are are. If they are resistive to wearing the clothes pins, you could start with having them put them on your or take them off of your clothes.
Have your child sit down to dress their lower body as it will help with feelings of balance security and gives them one less thing to have to deal with - no one wants to fall down trying to put a pair of pants on!
Try starting with shoes that are slip on or have Velcro-type closures. If your child needs to wear tie shoes, let them put the shoes on, pull up the tongue of the shoe, stretch out the laces, and then you help finish by tying their shoes. Look into elastic laces that do not have to be tied or untied, or other non-tie curly tie laces and the like.
As part of the dressing and undressing activities show your child where the dirty clothes need to go - whether you use a hamper, bin, or basket, let them help start to help you by putting their dirty clothes in their “special spot.”
Keep clothes in easy to reach areas - drawers at the right height to reach into and see what they are choosing, a lower hanging closet rod to take the hanging clothes off of, set out the clothes for the day on a bench or chair, and so on. Try not to make finding and getting to their clothes a whole ordeal and frustration in itself.
It’s ok for your child to dress in clothes that do not match. Celebrate their accomplishments - and take a picture of their crazy outfit!
Remember this is a learning experience and it takes time, practice, and repeated practice - keep at it, keep calm, try to have fun and work toward helping your child develop their independence in dressing!