Self-Care

For a child, one of the primary occupations is self-care. Self-care skills, which include feeding, toileting, dressing, bathing and grooming, are classified as Activities of Daily Living (ADL’s), because they are a critical part of a child’s overall health and participation each and every day. In order to participate in self-care, a child must have component skills within a variety of performance areas, and delays in any of these areas can make seemingly simple tasks feel nearly impossible.

FIVE TIPS TO SUPPORT INDEPENDENT SELF-CARE

Button it up!

  • refer to fine motor page for activity suggestions that improve the coordination of the small motor muscles in your hands
  • Practice unbuttoning first.
  • Break down steps of buttoning. Use consistent verbal and physical cues when helping the child button.
  • If aligning buttons to the button holes is a difficult task, show them how to take this part a step at a time, by lining up the bottom button to the bottom hole.
  • Practice buttoning from bottom to top. The child will have more room to work and a better view of the buttons at the bottom of a vest or shirt.
  • Backward Chaining: Encourage success in buttoning by starting with the last step. Work on just this last step with your child until they have mastered it. Then, work on the previous step. Gradually, add more steps to the buttoning task until they are able to complete the whole process. Backward chaining encourages self-confidence and success in learning new skills.
  • Practice buttoning with shirts/vests that are not visually distracting. Use a white shirt with colored buttons. You can also add a dot of paint to buttons to make them stand out.
  • At first, practice buttoning with a shirt laying on the child's lap or table, and positioned like it would be on their body. Practicing with a different shirt on the table gives the child more room to see the buttons and how their hands are working than if they are buttoning on their body.
  • Then, practice with an over-shirt, with the shirt on their body.
  • Practice with larger buttons.
  • Iron the button and hole edges of the shirt for a stiffer material to work with.
  • Practice with a jacket that is made with a thicker material, like corduroy.
  • For younger kids (age 3) you can snip the button hole just a little to make buttoning easier.



CREATE CRAFTS/ACTIVITIES that make practicing the skill of buttoning FUN!!!

OH SNAP!

One must have good strength in their fingers to be able to snap!

  • refer to fine motor page for activity suggestions that improve the coordination of the small motor muscles in your hands
  • additional activities that promote strength:
  • Spray bottle with water (spray plants; add color to water and spray it on a sheet or easel; add color to water and spray it on snow
  • Hide small objects in playdough or theraputty and have students PINCH and PULL to find them!
  • The strawberry huller develops the child’s pincer skills. It facilitates the ability to pinch the index and thumb together with force using the ends of the fingers. I have the child pick up and stack small blocks or dice. I have then put coins in a bank. Be sure to work both the left and right pincer muscles. Be sure the child’s thumb and index round to from a circle when pressing the ends of the huller together. The index and thumb nail almost touch as the child stacks the dice or puts the coins in the bank
  • Connecting pop beads requires index and thumb strength as well as pressure control. Snapping is not all about strength. Precise touch is also needed to make sure the snaps remain aligned as your fingers press the fasteners together. Connecting small pop beads seems to work the same muscles
  • Penny Pulling is all about strength development. The child holds a penny between their index and thumb. The index and thumb round to form a circle with the finger nails almost touching the penny. The teacher then tries to “steal’ or pull the penny away from the child’s pincer grasp.
  • NO BOARDS ON THIS ONE! Snapping on a board teaches the child to push the snap together against a firm surface. You do not snap by pushing the snap into your belly. You snap by placing your index and thumbs on the edges of the snap and applying pressure. Have the students start with various snap clothing on tables (pinching the snap not pushing down) and then work up to snapping by holding the clothing next to their waist. You can apply a little lubricant to the snaps in your snap box to make the snap work a little easier.

http://www.nymetroparents.com/article/How-to-Teach-Kids-Basic-Self-Care-Skills

ZIP IT UP!




Once your child can put on a jacket, she'll be eager to learn how to zip it up, but it takes time to master this complicated skill.

Until the age of 5 or 6, your child will likely need help zippering.

Strategies to try:

  • Pick out a jacket for yourself and one for your child that each have a zipper. Before teaching your child how to zip the zipper, demonstrate it on your own jacket. Do this several times so your child can get a clear visual of how zipper-zipping is done. This is especially important for children who are visual learners. While you demonstrate, point out the zipper pull and the teeth of the zipper.
  • Attach a keyring to the zipper pull on your child's jacket. This will make it easier for your child's tiny fingers to operate the zipper.
  • Place your hand over your child's hand and guide him into placing the zipper pull over the teeth at the bottom end of his jacket, after ensuring that the teeth on either side of the zipper match up. You should have his thumb and pointer finger clasping the zipper pull or key ring. Now instruct him to pull upward. Once the jacket is zipped, you can reverse the steps to unzip the jacket. Repeat a few times using the hand-over-hand assistance.
  • Practice on clothing or items such as a backpack that have larger zippers when your child first starts learning how to zip. Then move on to smaller zippers.
  • Using extra large zippers
  • Using a zipper that has 2 different color sides
  • Use zipping boards as well as zipping large clothing and bags
  • Lay the jacket on the floor so that the zipper is facing her and practice the pin-into-box-then-zip-up maneuver until that step is easy to manage. Then have them give it a go once more while wearing the jacket.


SHOE TYING 101.. I'VE TRIED IT ALL!

Learning to tie your own shoe laces is a tricky fine motor skill for children, but with patience, trying different methods and lots of practice parents & teachers can teach their child to tie their own laces.

  • Start big! Use ropes and/or large wax laces.
  • Teach them how to tie shoe laces by practicing on a shoe with soft laces. It helps to actually color in one half of the lace with a marker to make it a different color and allow you child to distinguish between the two sides of the lace (or use two different laces that are different colors).
  • Sit side by side so you have exactly the same perspective and can help your child mimic your actions. Hold an untied shoe between your upper legs or knees. The shoe should be facing away from you so that it is in the position that your own shoe would be in if you bent to tie it.
  • Make practice boards
  • Incorporate steps of tying (ex. making the x) into other activities (not just shoe tying)
  • Instruct your child to hold one end of the shoestring in each hand. Everything you tell them to do, you should also do so that they can copy you.
  • Cross the laces so that they form an “X” in the air. Wrap the bottom lace of the X over and through the top lace of the X. When it is pulled tight, this will form the base of the shoelace bow.

Different methods!

  1. The easy bunny ears method of tying laces

Two bunny ears help the child tie a square knot, one of the easiest knots to learn. Try teaching this:

  • Fold each end of the lace into a single “bunny ear.” You can hold the “ears” in place between your thumb and pointer finger on each hand.
  • Cross the bunny ears so that they form an “X” in the air.
  • Loop the bottom bunny ear over and through the top bunny ear. This will create a second knot.
  • Pull the bunny ears out to the side away from the shoe. This will create a square knot that will not easily come undone and will hold the shoe in place.

2. More Traditional Method

  • Take one lace in each hand and make an X. Draw the top lace through the bottom of the X and pull the two laces tight. Then make a loop out of each lace.
  • Cross the bunny ears over each other
  • Cross one “ear” over the other, in the opposite order of your overhand knot.
  • Run the bunny ears over each other
    • Explain how “the bunny runs around the tree” by bending one loop over the other.
  • See the bunny jump in a hole
    • Now “the bunny sees a dog and jumps in the hole”: Pass the tip of the bent ear through the hole.
  • Pull loops tight

For extra security, you can double the knot by making another overhand knot with the loops.

3. See video to the left!!!

Overall Tips for Teaching all Self Care Activities:

  • What to Expect! There is a wide range of ages at which dressing and feeding skills emerge - know developmental norms!
  • Helping Them Help Themselves! When a child is struggling with a task, often an adult's first instinct is to do it for them but we all know that helping a child help himself is wiser in the long run.
  • Break it down! If your student is having difficulty mastering any self-care skill, take a minute to break down the task. Perform the task yourself, slowly, labeling the steps involved.
  • Give the right help at the right time! Be specific with the exact part of the skill you are working on and help them with just that step and nothing more. As they begin to master the step, give less and less help with it and if needed, move onto the next step.
  • Try backward chaining for tricky tasks! Sometimes, it is helpful to have your child begin by performing only the last step. When they accomplish that piece, go backwards in the chain of steps, so that he/she is performing the last two steps. By having her begin by doing the final steps, rather than the first, she gets to finish the task and feel the pride of achievement as you say, "Look! You did it!"
  • Use play to work on skill-building! How can you build in activities that would help work on the desired skill into play routines/arts & crafts or other daily activities?
  • Make things easier for a while! As your student works on building the skills you can help them be as independent as possible by adapting materials or routines so that they have some opportunities to do things for themselves.
  • Know when to ask for help! If your student is experiencing delays in self-care skills that are having a negative impact on his daily life and self-esteem, it may be wise to get some help. Occupational Therapists can offer suggestions for working on your own to promote your child's development, or they may recommend that you seek intervention.

http://www.nymetroparents.com/article/How-to-Teach-Kids-Basic-Self-Care-Skills

Please click on the following link for a printable version of the information on this page:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13JjtDnO7GlrzgvECqzAd3hqfsVgkLrDhlr7nCdbtRkM/edit?usp=sharing