Self-dressing is an essential life skill for toddlers and instills a sense of confidence and independence in them.
Generally, toddlers at two years of age learn dressing skills further enabling their fine motor, gross motor and cognitive skills. In addition, clothes build on language skills with colors, patterns, and styles. Finally, dressing also teaches them to make choices independently which goes a long way in expressing themselves. Without making it too difficult on them and yourself, here are a few tips to get your toddler on the path to self-dressing.
Undressing First
Perhaps the easiest way is to start from the last step. Getting undressed is way easier than the intricacies of getting dressed. Get your kid to remove clothes by pushing them off easily. This way they begin to understand how their clothes work.
Pushing Arms/Legs Through
Hold up the clothes and encourage your kid to push their arms through the hole. This is a good first step in dressing up. It also gives them a basic understanding of what to do and which part of clothing going on where.
Easy Elastic Pants
Start off with pants that are comfortable, loose and with elastic at the waist. These pants are easier to slip in and slip out. You can gradually move to tougher fasteners from elastic, like buckles, hooks, zippers.
Focus is Essential
Unlike adults who can multi-task, toddlers need to completely direct their focus toward one task. Get your toddler to sit down while dressing, so they don’t have to worry about balancing and can concentrate on dressing up. This is all the more important for bottoms – pants, socks, shoes.
Wearing Shoes
Start off with the easier slip-on shoes. Coach your kid to insert their toes in first followed by their heels. Get them to repeat it independently. Once they master it, move on to Velcro fasteners. Velcro teaches them about fastening and is also a fun toy.
Front and Back
Point out clues to distinguish between front and back. From pocket design and placements to tags, button placements, etc., can help them differentiate.
Graduate with Fasteners
Learning to fasten clothes can prove quite the task. Work your way through them slowly with your toddler. Start with Velcro and then move to zippers. Finally, consider snap buttons but remember to teach them to line up buttons as they practice.
Slipping on T-shirts or Pullovers
This can prove quite tricky if the kid is scared or anxious about pulling a T-shirt on. Start with loose and comfortable clothes first and coach them to pull the T-shirt down to their neck. This also requires teaching them where the hands go and where the neck goes. Take them through it one step at a time.
Teaching toddlers to self-dress is a gradual and step-by-step process. Coach them through it, get them to imitate your movements to make it a fun activity. Most of all, ensure the clothes you have for them are comfortable and free for movement.
To successfully tick off the first step, watch this space as we get ready to launch our exclusive collection of kid’s clothes at Tiny Tycoon. We are a brand created, developed and designed by parents. We understand the needs of the toddler, and we’ve done just that while also adding style into the mix.
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