How to Get Children to Dress Themselves

Between 18 months and 5 years of age, your child will be slowly, but surely, learning how to accomplish the numerous tasks of dressing himself. To get your child to dress himself without intervention, you should approach this issue with patience, understanding and an encouraging attitude. All of the moments that you caught yourself before you took over to shove the last sock on or zip up his pants will be well worth it when he stands there proudly grinning and ready to go without any assistance.

Things You'll Need

  • Clothes
  • Dolls or teddy bears
  • Doll clothes
  • Dress up clothes

Instructions

    • 1

      Offer clothing options. Allowing your child to have a choice in what she wears may increase cooperation and participation. This can be two sets of pajamas, two different colors of socks or two different shirts. Choose your battles and accept that your child̵7;s fashion sense is not the same as yours -- a purple hat, mismatched socks, a fishing vest and a tutu may be the outfit of the day.

    • 2

      Buy clothing that is loose enough for your child to slip in and out of and avoid complex snaps, stiff zippers, hard snaps or tricky laces until he gets the hang of dressing himself. Store the clothes in a lower drawer or rack so he can reach the clothes himself.

    • 3

      Walk your child through the getting dressed steps, one at a time. To you it may seem easy and straight forward, but a young one needs simple instructions along the way. Don̵7;t give in to the temptation to take over and dress your child. Be patient -- learning how to get dressed independently is a skill that takes time.

    • 4

      Establish a regular daily routine and stick to it. If your child knows that in the morning she must get up, use the bathroom and get dressed before eating breakfast, she may be more apt to do these tasks without a fight than if it is chaos every day.

    • 5

      Praise every attempt and success. This can be a frustrating situation, especially with uncoordinated fingers trying to maneuver buttons, zippers and snaps.

    • 6

      Make it fun. Time your child to see how quickly he can get dressed. Pretend like you don̵7;t want him to dress, by hiding his pants under his pillow or telling him ̶0;No, you have to wear your jammies to preschool.̶1; Challenge him to a race to see who can get dressed faster.

    • 7

      Use props and entertaining activities to practice her skills. Let her dress a teddy bear or doll. A bin of dress up clothes gives her plenty of getting-dressed practice.

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