Some children of 4-5 years old dress confidently, completely independently and independently of their parents. Others are only able to substitute arms and legs, tearfully responding to any attempts to accustom them to independence. What is the difference? First of all, in the approach of parents. Some managed to understand how to teach a child how to dress, while others either failed to do this or missed the most suitable time. How to prevent such errors, you will learn from the article.
How old is it to teach a child to dress?
Experienced parents are well aware that at 1.5-3 years the child goes through a very interesting life stage - "I myself". At this time, he rejects any help from his parents, trying to do everything on his own, even for which he clearly does not have enough strength, dexterity and experience.
Perhaps this is precisely the time that can be called the most suitable and favorable for laying many useful skills, including the use of clothing. Of course, parents should know how to teach a child to undress and dress, but it is especially important to choose the right time to begin this difficult but extremely important stage of personality formation. After all, this will greatly facilitate the lives of parents, and at the same time spur the development of the child.
It is important to interest the child
It is very important that your son or daughter themselves want to dress. On the one hand, at the age of 2 years, the attempt to independently perform the work that parents usually do is already a reward - the children really like to show independence, learn new things, thus constantly developing.
But it will be useful to further stimulate interest, to do everything so that the child tries to dress on his own. So, if you are interested in how to teach a 2-year-old child how to dress, you need to find certain tricks, thanks to which he himself will want to pull on his pants and t-shirt over and over again. Moreover, it is desirable that the bonus received was inextricably linked precisely with the dressing process and the result of this work. For example, if you offer him candy for dressing, this will not be the best motivation. In this case, the dressing process will not be in any way logically connected with the receipt of goodies. This means that its effectiveness will not be too high - because the candy is already at home, which means you can eat it without dressing.
It is much better to suggest: "If you dress yourself, we will go to the store, buy bread, milk and candy for you." Here the child already traces a clear connection - the candy is in the store, the store is on the street, and to get there, you need to get dressed. Consequently, he will especially try to get dressed on his own as soon as possible.
You can think of many such motivations - let's go to the zoo, visit, play on the playground and many others. The main thing is that they bring pleasure to the child and are in a place where you can get only by dressing.
Start gradually
Now it's time to tell how to teach a child to dress independently at 2.5-3 years or even a little earlier.
The main thing is to do everything gradually; in upbringing, such a technique is always the most successful.
For example, everyone knows that taking off clothes is easier than putting them on. So, having returned from a walk, to begin with, suggest the child to undress. Pay attention to t-shirts, sweaters and shirts - it is usually much more difficult to cope with them, since this requires more complex manipulations. But with socks and pants is much easier to handle. Therefore, having removed a T-shirt or sweater, invite the child to remove the rest of the clothes on his own.
Accordingly, try to carry out the dressing process in the same way. For starters, it would be better if the children learn the simplest steps. Let them put on their socks and pull on their pants. In the early days, the task can be simplified a bit. The hardest thing when putting on a child’s pants is to get his feet into the legs. Help him cope with this stage, but do not pull the trousers to the end, let him do it on his own. A trifle? For you, yes. And for a child a real breakthrough, a great opportunity to put into practice new, hitherto unknown knowledge. It is with such trifles that you need to start if you are interested in how to teach a child how to dress himself.
The same technique is used when putting on t-shirts and sweaters. Putting your head in is the most difficult step. So help the child cope with him, and let his hands slip into the sleeves himself.
So, gradually, step by step, in just a few weeks, ordinary children easily master the entire dressing process. Of course, they will not be able to fasten buttons on a shirt or trousers in 2 years. But dealing with sweatpants or a t-shirt is easy.
We use identification marks
People interested in how to teach a 3-year-old child to dress will be useful to remember another subtlety. Kids are often confused on clothes back and front. It’s easier for adults - the label, small differences in the front and back and other discreet signs allow you to accurately navigate and prevent such mistakes. But the child rarely pays attention to where the label is on the T-shirt. Therefore, it is highly likely that the clothes will be worn incorrectly.
That is why it is advisable to start the training process with clothes that have distinct, clearly visible identification marks. Pockets and designs are a good choice. It is enough to show the child a couple of times how to wear specific clothes, what signs to look for, so that he remembers this rule. If there are no identification marks on the clothes, they can always be made. For example, buy a small and inexpensive patch in the needlework department and sew it on clothing.
Choosing the right shoes
Of course, parents who want to learn how to teach a child how to dress independently at 3 years old, want him to not only dress but also to wear shoes. And this is perhaps one of the most difficult stages. It is one thing to put on socks or pants, and quite another to put on shoes. Of course, there are no problems with slippers - usually children at one and a half to two years famously handle them. But with sneakers and shoes much more complicated.
To begin with, for quite some time, children cannot figure out which foot the left shoe is on, and the right shoe on which one. Alas, this will have to be put up with for a while. It’s good if there are some distinctive signs on the shoes (or they can be made using the same small stripes). Then you can try to show the child that if, for example, the flower is on the left side of the sneaker, then you need to shoe it on the left foot. However, you should not push hard and persist - children at 2-3 years old easily remember the concepts of "up-down", but "left-right" is given to them much more difficult.
It is advisable not to use shoes that are difficult to put on - with laces. Fortunately, today the market is flooded with fairly high-quality products equipped with Velcro. To cope with them is much easier, and at two years old the child without any problems mastered them.
Does the child like clothes?
Some parents spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to teach a 3-year-old child to dress on their own, but they do not achieve a special result. But they believe that they are using the wrong technique or are not insistently demanding the result from the baby. The fact that he simply does not like clothes, they do not even think about.
But this is a fairly common phenomenon. The child simply does not like clothes for some reason. Very rarely aesthetic - color, design, drawings, all this is of little interest to young children. But if parents require the child to wear a woolen sweater, which is prickly, tight socks that squeeze the fingers, or a T-shirt, the label of which constantly rubs the neck, the result may be completely different than we would like.
Sometimes a child simply says that he does not want to wear clothes and accordingly argues his point of view. But this is very rare. In other cases, he begins to scandal, cry, scatter clothes - such behavior, especially if it is not typical for the baby, you should definitely take a closer look to understand what caused this aggression. But sometimes a child simply pretends that he is unable to learn how to dress independently. Yes, children are surprisingly cunning and resourceful when required. Therefore, they are trying to avoid such a trick, or at least delay the moment when you have to walk in uncomfortable clothes. Keep this in mind and check if it is comfortable enough and whether the child likes it.
We instill positive emotions
It is best if the child’s dressing process is associated with pleasant emotions. So it can be reinforced. As mentioned above, in the first stages it is worth stimulating interest in dressing with the promise of an interesting walk. In this case, the work is aimed at the result. Why not make the dressing process enjoyable?
There are many ways to organize this. For example, when a child dresses, tell him exactly where you will go together and what you will do. Children love such stories, and just the communication itself with loved ones and loving parents. Even better if you hum a song or recite a poem. In this case, you will kill two birds with one stone. On the one hand, the child, listening to poems, will memorize them, which will positively affect the development of memory. On the other hand, enjoying listening to poems and songs, children get used to it, and the dressing process itself is associated with something pleasant. Even after a few months, when you will not devote so much time to him, allowing you to dress completely independently, positive emotions will still remain.
The main mistakes made by parents
There are quite a few mistakes that parents can make when trying to figure out how to teach a child to undress and dress. Each of them can seriously delay the learning process - for several months or even years.
First of all, repulsing the desire to be independent. On the one hand, this is understandable - the child, when dressing, is often distracted by extraneous activities, and even if he concentrates, it will still take 3-4 times as long as the process when the baby is collected by the parents. Therefore, many of them, unable to stand it, simply wave their hand and do all the work for the child. And this is a huge mistake. As long as you do some work for the children, they will never learn to do it on their own. Of course, every parent wants to understand how to teach a child how to dress quickly. But this is unreal. Any skill is mastered gradually. First, the child has to spend a quarter of an hour on the process. After a couple of weeks - 10 minutes. And after a few months he can easily manage in a few minutes. But he will do everything on his own, mastering a new skill that has a positive effect on overall development.
If you need a consultation on how to teach a child how to dress, you can also be advised to be restrained and gentle. Yes, it’s hard to resist the caustic words when a child has not been able to gently pull his sock for five minutes, and you are late for an appointment. But pushing him, shouting and rewarding offensive nicknames “turtle”, “kopusha”, or even “brake”, you will not achieve anything good. The child will not dress faster, but the process itself will be associated with unpleasant memories. As a result, when you tell him to dress before a walk, he will immediately remember the accumulated resentment and refuse, begin to indulge, scream, scatter clothes, cry. It is worth remembering and constantly monitoring yourself. Are you late because your baby is dressing slowly? No, rather, you are late because you did not manage to plan the time correctly and forgot that children have to spend much more time doing simple work — they don’t have the same experience as you. So instead of screaming at the child, it’s better to plan your schedule more carefully, give the children more time to get dressed, and leave a few minutes in reserve to check whether the shoes are worn on that foot, if the T-shirt is worn inside out .
Main benefit
Early learning to dress your child has many advantages.
The most obvious is that parents save time. Yes, in the first stages it does not work. But after six months, you do not have to constantly dress the child, as the parents of his peers do. It is enough to give the appropriate orders and go about their business.
At the same time, independence is developing - a trait that modern children really lack.
Finally, it has a positive effect on motor skills. Adults then perform the entire process automatically, without thinking, carefully debugged for decades. And for children this is a real discovery. They have to carry out a lot of actions, solve a bunch of tasks, just to put on their pants and a T-shirt. Any similar loads in childhood have a positive effect on the development of the child and, accordingly, his further skills.
Conclusion
As you can see, teaching a child how to dress independently is pretty simple. To do this, it is enough to love him, act wisely and be able to control yourself.