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 elastic waisted pants
- A mirror at your child’s level (optional, but highly recommended)
Steps
- Provide two options of clean pants in a drawer or other place accessible to your child.
- Invite your child to choose the pair of pants that he would like to wear.
- Invite your child to sit on the floor.
- Place the pants flat on the floor in front of your child with them orientated correctly – that is, with the front of the pants uppermost, the waist closest to your child and the legs spread out flat on the floor.
- Show your child the tag on the pants. “Bend your knees and put your toes on top of the tag!”
- Show your child how to hold onto the sides of the waistband with his thumbs tucked inside.
- Keeping his toes on the tag, invite your child to straighten one of his legs and pull up on the waist band.
- Invite your child to let go of the waistband and pull up the pant leg from the knee. “Watch for your foot! There it is!”
- Repeat for the second leg.
- Invite your child to stand up, reach behind his body, grasp the waistband at the back of his pants with two hands and pull his pants up and over his underwear.
- Invite your child to look down at the front of his pants. Ask him, “Do you still see your underwear/diaper here? (Indicate the front waistband of your child’s pants.) Pull up your pants right here to cover it up!”
Variations
- When your child has mastered elastic waisted pants, show him how to put on pants that have button and zip fastenings, and later jeans as well.
Notes
- The ability to make a choice is a skill that the child needs to learn, practice and master in the same way that he acquires other life skills. To help the child to acquire this skill, provide him with a limited choice of alternatives – that is, provide him with the choice of two items/activities. When the child can make a choice between two alternatives with ease, gradually increase the number of choices that are available to the child.
