Monday 25 April 2016

Help kids getting dressed and deciding what to wear?

Deciding what to wear is hard enough when you are well practiced but can be really difficult for some kids.  Out autistic boys get dressed in what we put them in or what is laid out for them. Initially we helped our eldest, Anthony get himself dressed using a sequencing strip and this was very successful.  Although I still have to lay out his school uniform on school days, he can now choose clothes for himself at the weekend but he still sometimes is sent back upstairs because something isn't right.  It's colder than he thinks so he needs trousers not shorts, a top looks very strange with the trousers etc.  Our younger daughter Jane was doing a fun craft activity and I thought it looked like it could be a great way to help the kids decide what to wear. 

Jane was having fun making a doll out of a wooden spoon and dressing it. Either the adult, or the adult and child can dress the doll and then kiddie can copy it to get dressed.  School day? Dress it in a school uniform. Sunny?  Try shorts and t-shirt.  You may have fun making the clothes too, Jane thought crayons would be best.  However, if like our autistic kids can be sometimes, your child needs things to be exact, then you can do this.  We have a generic smiley face, but you could add your child's face to the spoon or use photos of their real clothes.

What you will need:
  • A wooden or other large spoon
  • A face /hair
  • Various cut out clothes
  • Masking tape
  • Glue stick
Simply stick the face on the back of the spoon and then use masking tape to add the clothes. By using the masking tape you'll be able to re use the clothes.  After the spoon person is dressed simply stand them up in a cup.

This fun activity can be used just for play, for learning about what clothes go together, what to wear given the weather today or even just as a labelling activity for kids learning to name their different clothing items.   Let me know what you do.

spoon doll pieces

dress up doll clothes on

Links
Our blog - Mess free picture meal play
Our blog - Our mummification mishaps - autism and dressing up in school

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You Baby Me Mummy

8 comments:

  1. What a wonderfully simple yet fun activity for the kids to do! Love this!

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  2. Nice simple yet effective idea. I have a dress teddy game where kids can learn the clothes names and learn what to wear in different weather e.g. you can dress him for a hot or cold day. To help my big lad learn the order to get dressed in I made him a washing line and hung it in his room with the items in order, so it had pants then vest then socks etc This really helped and I used pegs so could easily swap items. TY 🌸 for linking up to #FamilyFun 🎉

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  3. Oh I love the washing line idea, he could take them down as he completed each bit too. We had a sequencing strip, he still gets dressed in the same order even though we haven't had the strip for years!

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  4. This is such a clever idea! I hadn't thought of using a toy to help my little one learn about getting dressed and what to wear according to the weather. Right... I am off to find out where I can buy some wooden spoons. Thanks so much for sharing this idea. #FamilyFun

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    Replies
    1. You can get them really cheaply, I was surprised! Hope you had fun and thanks for stopping by

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  5. Such a clever idea, and so simple too. Thanks for linking up to #ToddlerApprovedTuesday hope to see you again soon :)

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  6. These are fab, my 2 year old would love dressing up his own little spoon, I will need to get some wooden spoons and make them with him. Thanks so much for linking up to #HowtoSunday :) x

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  7. Your work is great and I welcome you and bouncing for some more useful posts. Much obliged to you for sharing incredible data to us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FdJ4o348t4

    ReplyDelete

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