Well, it’s no surprise, we knew it would happen sooner or later—winter is well on its way. There’s a chill in the air, frost on the car, and snow on the lawn. It’s that time of year—time for snowsuits and hats and mitts and boots. Whether you are helping to dress one or more children, it can be exhausting. Here are a few reminders and ideas to help ease you and your children into the season.

#1

Know what to expect from a developmental perspective. Expectations that are too high will lead to frustration for you and the children. http://www.kamloopschildrenstherapy.org/dressing

#2

Teach skills that are age-appropriate and set the children up for success. Try different techniques to find what works best. Is the child having a hard time getting on her coat? Try the flip trick (see #8 below), use a chair (place the open coat against the back and have the child sit to put her arms in), or try hanging the coat off of her head (from the hood) to provide a bit more stability.

 

#3

Provide opportunities for children to practice and learn new dressing/undressing skills.

• Keep a bin of dress up clothes accessible to entice the children to dress and undress themselves with fun costumes and dress up props. Include items with zippers, buttons, Velcro, and snaps.
• Create a mitten and glove bin, let the children practice putting on and taking off different types of mittens and gloves—perfect for odd and mismatched items!
• Provide dolls and doll clothes.
• Invest in a quiet page or book featuring zippers, buttons, snaps, etc. Lydia (lydiamontavon@hotmail.com) makes a beautiful assortment of quiet pages.
• Have older children help you dress the younger ones.

 

#4

Plan ahead. Have your bag packed and ready by the door.  Make sure that all of the necessary winter clothing and boots are close by.  Having items readily available will ensure that you aren’t looking for things at the last minute. Have families label all of their child’s winter clothes and boots.  This will help to avoid mix-ups between children in your care and even more importantly, potential mix-ups when you are out in the community enjoying playgroups and/or other events. There can easily be duplicate (or triplicate!) snowsuits, boots, etc. Having the items labelled will make things much easier.  It’s also a good idea to help older children learn to recognize their name/label as their own. This is an important self-help skill for starting school.

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#5

Allow plenty of time for getting ready. It is hard to learn and/or practice a new skill when you are feeling rushed or pressured to perform. Having extra time built in to your schedule, specifically for this purpose, is sure to help. Just as with any new skill. Time to practice is essential.

#6

Use visual cues such as sequencing cards with real photos of the children getting their winter clothes on and off or design your own. Search Pinterest for ideas or purchase a ready-made poster from teacherspayteachers.com. Following a consistent “order of operations” each and every time the children get dressed/undressed will help.

#7

Include a transition song to help remind the children and to prompt the order in which to get dressed.  Here is a simple example to the tune of “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes”:

Snow pants, boots, coat and hat, coat and hat, coat and hat

Snow pants, boots, coat and hat, mittens go on last!

#8

Make it fun. Use distraction, humour, or a simple “game” to get the task done.

To keep the children on track it can be helpful to distract from the task by talking about what will happen next.  If you are leaving playgroup, heading home for lunch, talk about lunch. If you are getting dressed to play in the yard talk about something specific in the yard.  If you are going for a walk, talk about something you might do or someone you might see. Focus on something interesting to motivate getting ready.

#9

Model and describe what you want to see. Narrate your actions as you are helping to dress the children or are getting dressed yourself: “First I line up my boots, then I slip in one foot and then the other!”

#10

Offer lots of encouragement and specific praise regarding effort.

• “Jody—I saw that you laid out your coat and flipped it on! Now you are ready to zip it up!”
• “Sunil—you’ve got on your snow pants, boots, and coat….what’s next?”
• “Kayla—I see you’ve almost got that zipper up.  Zippers are tricky, keep trying! I’m here if you want help.”
• “I like how you are all sitting while I finish putting on my gloves.”

 

#11

When possible, stick to a consistent routine for outings/outdoor play. Routines create stability of knowing “what’s next”. If every morning after snack you go out to play, the children will be more likely to get dressed willingly.   Build in the task of getting ready as part of the routine. Talk about it just as you would any other element of the day.

#12

For those times when you are running late and it’s not possible to give the children the extra time they need, try to give them some choice or control over the situation. If you are interrupting engaged play offer to “pause” or “freeze” the play for later.

• “It’s time to get Jenny off the bus. We need to hit “pause”. Should we tidy up the blocks or leave them out for later?”
• “Today we are in a hurry! We need to be so fast!  Let’s do it together. Should we sing the getting dressed song or do a countdown?”
• “We have to be so fast today friends. I will help everyone get ready and get into the van.  When we’re on our way you can listen to music or you can look at a book.” Keep certain books, songs, or small toys only for use in the car.

 

#13

For children who consistently have a hard time getting dressed in winter wear consider whether a larger issue might be at play: Could it be sensory related? Are the boots too small? Is the child uncomfortable? Discuss concerns with the family and problem solve together.

#14

Finally, for toddlers who insist on getting undressed faster than you can get out the door, here are some tips from www.todaysparent.com/toddler/how-to-get-your-toddler-to-wear-winter-clothes/