I'm Dressing Myself!

Materials You Need: Your child’s everyday clothing.

What You Can Do Together: At this age, your child may show interest in dressing (or, more often at the beginning, undressing) her- or himself.  Yes, it is more efficient to do it yourself, but spend some time giving your child a chance to “Do myself!”

Find times when you are not in a hurry.  It may be easiest to start with undressing at bath time.  For this and dressing, during this time of interest in dressing, try to choose clothes that are especially easy to put on and take off. You can also encourage your child to do the easiest bits, and perhaps just one item at a time.

Enrich this activity with conversation while you’re together.  Name items, colours, and so on, and describe what your child is doing: “Look, you have your arm in the sleeve of your shirt.  That’s great!”

What Your Child is Learning:  Dressing one’s self is an important “self-help” skill that will become essential when school begins. It also builds your child’s sense of competence and independence. To figure out how to put on an article of clothing, your child also needs her or his thinking skills, to plan what to do first, which part goes where, and so on. Language and communication are also strengthened when you have conversations with your child about a task that is very interesting to him or her.