Teaching kids to dress themselves independently is one important skill to teach them, around the time they start going to school. If you think teaching this particular skill is only to put some burden off your shoulders, well, it is not just that. Not only does it help the child to become self-reliant, and boosts his confidence; it also contributes in the development of their motor and other cognitive skills, and also in language development.
So, while there comes a time when children themselves start trying to dress them themselves, however, a few may not show any interest and continue depending on you. For parents, it does become necessary to note and observe all such little things, and take up actions in order to ensure their child does not lag behind in acquiring any of those skills which are appropriate to his age.
Given below are a few easy tips in order to help your kid learn the basic dressing skills, which s/he must have mastered by the end of her/his fourth birthday:
Art of zipping
Teach them the art of zipping their mouths. Well, not really. While, this too could be good life skill, but what we are focusing in this post is the art of zipping up the clothes.So start by first teaching them unzip, as it is comparatively an easier task. You can play a game of zipping up a jacket and letting the child unzip it, for practice. Then, in some time reverse the pattern.
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Putting on the pants
This one can be tricky. Putting on pants and shorts require a lot of hand-eye co-ordination as well as balancing act. You have to teach the child to put in one leg at a time in the leg holes, while holding them from the waist. They may fumble and stumble in their initial attempts, but keep the practice on.
Putting on a top
The front closed t-shirts, tops are slightly more complex for the toddlers to get their head and heads through them properly, so start with the front open top-wear like jackets and cardigans. Place the jacket on the floor upside down. Now ask the child to carefully slide through the sleeves his/her arms and raise them towards the sky, to have the jacket pulled over the head. A bit of pulling down and adjusting, and there you go.
Slipping in the shoes
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Buttoning Up
In the end, don’t make it a task to accomplish for you nor for your kid. Make it a fun activity and keep room for the laughs when goof ups happen.