Many parents mistakenly believe that if you buy a lot of educational toys for your baby, he will learn everything himself. But independence will have to be taught to you yourself. It is better to start doing this at 2-3 years old. At this age, the child increasingly says the phrase "I myself", and this is great. Indeed, in the absence of desire, it is difficult to teach anything. Seize this moment, because at an older age, the child, on the contrary, is lazy to do something himself and most often insists that his parents do it instead.
Why kids don't like to dress
Children tend to be reluctant to dress themselves. The main reason is that they do not know how. Well, it’s inconvenient to pull on tights that don’t want to pull on themselves, put on pants, and even rightly so, and there’s no need to talk about buttoning up clothes. These "wrong" socks, which are always put on the other way around, these incomprehensible sleeves, which for some reason do not get your hands. In the end, the baby begins to get nervous, cry, and throws up the case with hysteria.
How to teach your toddler how to dress
You can teach your child how to dress independently. It's not difficult at all. It is enough to show him several times how to do it correctly. You just need to do it at a slow pace, recording each stage: examining clothes, smoothing them, you need to show which side the clothes should be in front of the child's face in order to put them on correctly as a result. Remember: slow is the main thing. And this will already be a big step towards ensuring that the next time the child does it himself. For the second or third try, have your toddler put on the clothes himself. Let it be one day, for example, a skirt or dress, pants or tights.
Another day, something different from the clothes. See what it does wrong. Repeat this step one more time in slow motion. Did you repeat it? Now let the kid try again for himself. If it still does not work out, put on this item of clothing yourself, and next time repeat the process itself again, first yourself, fix it, and then the child puts on the clothes again himself.
Three interesting ways
You can use the following two ways to make learning to dress fun and interesting.
First way: take an item of clothing. Imagine putting it on your child. You understood correctly, imagine in your mind. You can do it quickly. Now do as you imagine, only in slow motion, slowly. Your baby should have time to remember all the details of the process.
What is the essence of this method. Adults do many things automatically, unconsciously. Because they know how to do it, they do it quickly, this is their usual business. The child, on the other hand, cannot understand how you do it, but he does not. And, slowing down the process that has become automatic for you, you record almost every movement in the baby's head. As a result, he begins to understand what exactly you are doing. All this is deposited in his head somewhere on a subconscious level. And at the beginning, he is still just trying to dress himself, while some things work out for him, some do not, but over time, all these actions will also be obtained automatically in the same way. It just takes a little time and your patience.
Think back when you watch magic tricks. You see how objects disappear and appear, you wonder how it happened. But if you watch the same scene in slow motion, you begin to see that the magician has hidden something, pulled something out. It becomes clear to you how the focus turned out. It's the same with a child.
Method two: Show your child the difference between dressing properly and dressing in the wrong way. Put on the pantyhose the other way around and do not pull them all the way. Let the baby be like them. Isn't it inconvenient? Now take off your pantyhose and put them on correctly. Is it convenient now? Yes, now it's convenient. Try this with several types of clothing: pants, jacket, dress, jacket.
And then, if the child independently puts on some thing wrong, he will not think that he is uncomfortable, because everyone is so, now he will know that if it is uncomfortable, then something is wrong.
The third method is more suitable for dads if you have a son and moms if you have a daughter. Prepare clothes for yourself and your baby. Lay the same. Now start dressing together at the same time. Dad puts on trousers and son. Everything has to happen at the same time. Mom puts on tights and daughter. Then the dress. Then the shoes. If during the learning process, the child does not wear the clothes correctly, not keeping up with the parent, start over.
Try it. These are interesting teaching options for your little one. Interesting for both parents.
Not everything that is natural to you is natural to a child. There is no need to hope that the child will learn everything himself. Of course, there are no people who do not know how, for example, to dress. Everyone knows how. We learned sooner or later. Just think about the fact that your child in kindergarten or school will not be able to do what other children can do. And this will be the very first reason for ridicule from others. And here is the first complex from childhood. Let him at least know how to do what a child at his age should be able to do. Then he will be confident in himself and the rest of the things will turn out to him quickly. Do not miss this very first time for independence. This is the foundation. And then just keep up the existing skills and teach new ones.
