Dressing

4th July 2024Website Admin

Learning to dress independently is an essential life skill that promotes confidence, independence, responsibility and fine motor development in children. Mastering this skill can be particularly challenging yet empowering. Once mastered, it can help make the stress of getting ready for school in the morning and out of the house on time that much more successful! Here are practical strategies, visuals and tips to guide you through the process of teaching your child how to dress themselves.

Click on the images below to see some of our own ‘Take the stress out of dressing resources’ 

Dressing resource Gesher (2)

Shoelaces

2nd July 2024Website Admin

Learning how to tie shoelaces can be challenging but it is an important self-care skill for your child to learn!  It is an important skill to master for many reasons including, teaching your child important skills like following directions, sorting, sequencing, planning, hand-eye coordination and midline crossing. Developing this skill will also help your child to develop their dexterity and independence.

Here are some tips to help when teaching your child how to tie shoelaces.

  • Start with your child sitting at a table, practising with a shoe on the table in front of them. Once your child is able to independently complete all stages of tying a shoelace on a shoe on a table in front of them, they can then move on to practising with the shoe on their foot.
  • Teach your child how to untie their laces first. This is easier.
  • Physically help your child, placing your hands over theirs and gradually reduce the physical support as they begin to gain confidence.
  • Use backward chaining. Start by breaking the task down into small steps. You teach your child the last step first, working backward from the goal. The adult completes all the steps except the last one. Get your child to practise the final step. Your child will enjoy the success that comes from completing a task. Once your child can do the last step you complete all the steps except for the last two. You teach your child the second from last step and they then complete the last step themselves. Keep going until you are teaching the first step and your child is completing all the other steps.
  • Provide lots of praise and encouragement.
  • If your child is struggling, you may be attempted to take over, but please don’t. Provide lots of encouragement and give them the time they need to practise!
  • Often, children find it useful to practise using two different coloured laces to help identify the laces clearly.

There are many step-by-step videos you can watch with your child. You can pause these at any time so your child can do the step immediately after watching it. There are also step-by-step visual guides that are really useful to use. Below is a video, plus a link to a resource that we think is really helpful.

Step-by-step guide to tiding shoe laces 

Cultery and Crockery

2nd July 2024Website Admin

Learning how to use cutlery effectively is a common goal for many of our children at Gesher. Here is a link to a YouTube video that will help your child learn how to use their knife and fork and practise their skills at home. This is a great way to help younger children remember how to correctly hold and use their knife and fork using the ‘stab with the fork, down the slide and saw saw saw saw saw’ sentence.

Resources for home:

There are several options when it comes to cutlery and many shops and places to purchase different ones. We recommend using Caring cutlery with children as this cutlery has an indentation where the index finger is to be placed and is specifically designed to fit the child or young person’s hand. This cutlery comes in both child and junior sizes and many different colours. Utensils with thick and/or textured handles are easier to hold. A spoon or fork with a short handle is easier to control.  Consider the weight of the cutlery.  Sometimes something heavier can be easier to control.

Use plates with shallow and rimmed plates with high sides so that the food can be pushed to the side of the  plate, to make it easier for them to pick it up with a fork or spoon by pushing it onto the sides.

Check the plate/bowl isn’t sliding around. A Dycem non-slip surface or mat may be useful.

Consider using plastic plates rather than crockery or metal as some children may be adverse to the sound of the cutlery hitting the plate.

Below are some links to where you can purchase items mentioned in this post.

Cultery

️ Rimmed plates

Non-slip mats

Toileting

2nd July 2024Website Admin

Many children find it difficult to achieve independence in toileting and this skill can be even more difficult when the child has ASD and sensory processing issues. Patience and practice are key!! Independent toileting is a very complex task with lots of steps. An important strategy we use when supporting toileting skills is ‘backward changing’. This strategy provides children with a sense of achievement and enables the skill to be broken down into achievable steps. Here is a link to a really useful website further explaining the backwards-changing approach and information on supporting your child to become independent with toileting.

TomTags

2nd July 2024Website Admin

Reduce anxieties and frustrations and make it easier for your child to understand, follow and remember what they need to do with the TomTag visual support system. Inspired by a mum and her autistic son Tom, TomTag has been created to help parents and children communicate. With a unique and innovative design, this award-winning communication tool helps children and young people develop coping strategies to manage their day, using structure, organisation and predictability – at home, at school and when out and about. There is also a very handy tips and resources page which you can find here.

BBC Tiny Happy People

2nd July 2024Website Admin

Tiny Happy People can help you develop your child’s language and communication skills, so they get the best start in life The ideas and activities are easy to build into your daily routine. They’re quick and inspiring, but they’re also based on expert advice and evidence and are proven to help your child’s development. You can find out more here.

Makaton

2nd July 2024Website Admin

Makaton is a unique language programme that uses symbols, signs and speech to enable people to communicate. It supports the development of essential communication skills such as attention and listening, comprehension, memory, recall and organisation of language and expression. You can find out more about Makaton here.

Dobble Card Game

2nd July 2024Website Admin

This is a card game that supports attention, listening, vocabulary, and turn-taking. The linked version is the original, but various other versions can be purchased to support different vocabulary areas, or that are in line with your child’s interests e.g. there is a Harry Potter Dobble, Seaside Dobble, Paw Patrol Dobble. You can buy Dobble here.