Dressing myself - order of dressing

All children need to learn what order to put their clothes on in. They need to know that their pants
go on before their trousers, unless they want to dress up as a super hero!

Hints and tips:

• Involve your child in learning the order of dressing as early as possible. Sing songs about dressing, talk to your child about dressing, play dressing up games and practice dressing dolls or teddies
• Talk about the order of dressing when you or your child are dressing. Ask questions e.g.
  “What goes on next?”
• Lay clothes out in the order they should be put on. This is usually easier if you lay them out
  in a line rather than putting them on top of each other
• Use a visual sequence chart
• Think about the environment, if laying clothes out; put them on something which acts as a
  contrasting plain background. Don’t put clothes onto a patterned duvet cover. Don’t put red
  clothes on a red carpet
• Practise, practise, practise! Give your child opportunities for practise every day
• If your child makes a mistake, help them to work out what went wrong and how to fix it
  rather than telling them and sorting it out for them
• Sometimes you need them to complete the whole process so that they can work out what
  went wrong. If they put their trousers on without their pants, let them dress completely and
  find the pants at the end
• You can ask questions to help them figure out what went wrong
• You can compare what you do with what they have done
• You can have them look in the mirror to work out what is wrong
• Direct them back to their visual sequence if they are using one