Recommended Age: 18m+
Level of Parent Involvement: Medium – until the child has practiced the activity several times, then low
Prerequisites
- None
Materials
- A limited choice of T-shirts
- A mirror at the child’s level (optional, but highly recommended)
Steps
- Provide two options of clean shirts in a drawer or other place accessible to your child.
- Invite your child to choose the shirt that she would like to wear – “Would you like to wear the red or blue shirt today?”
- Place the shirt front down on a flat surface in front of your child with it orientated correctly – that is, with the back of the shirt uppermost, the bottom of the shirt closest to your child and the neck opening of the shirt furthest away from your child.
- Draw your child’s attention to the bottom of the shirt and explain, “this is the large opening” and the neck of the shirt, “this is the small opening.”
- Model for your child how to grasp the bottom hem of the back of the shirt, explaining, “tuck your thumbs underneath, like this.”
- Show your child how to bend her head forward and pull the shirt over her head until it pops through the small opening – “I can see the top of your head!”
- Tell your child to let go of the bottom of her shirt and reach up with her hands to the small opening (i.e. the neck). Guiding her hands, tell her to place one hand on either side of the neck opening and pull her shirt down over her head.
- Show your child how to lift the front hem of the shirt up and push one arm under the front of the shirt, up and through one of the sleeves. Repeat for the other arm.
- Indicating the mirror, show your child how to check that her shirt has been pulled down correctly at the front and back.
