Helping a child gain independence in all aspects of life is what pediatric occupational therapy is all about. One way occupational therapists can assist with this is by helping children learn how to dress themselves!
Listed below are the ages at which a child should achieve specific dressing skills:
- Up to 1 year: cooperate with dressing by holding out arms or leg and start to push arms through sleeves and legs through pants
- 1 ½ years: Remove socks
- 2 years: find arm holes in a pullover shirt, pull pants down with some assistance and take off shoes if laces are untied
- 2 ½ years: unbutton large 1” buttons
- 3 years: put on an over the head shirt with minimal assistance, zip/unzip a zipper once the hook is engaged, button large buttons, pull down and fully take off elastic waistband pants, and put socks/shoes on however may be on the wrong foot
- 4 years: Consistently identify the front from the back of a shirt, insert the hook of the zipper and zip a coat, and put on shoes and socks correctly
- 5 years: Dress themselves unsupervised
