Games to Help a Caregiver Teach Self Help Skills to a Toddler

Dressing themselves, wiping their face and feeding themselves with child-sized utensils are just a few tasks under the umbrella of self-help skills for toddlers. And, while it often seems faster and easier to do everything for the child in the short-run, encouraging your toddler to build self-help skills has many long-term benefits, including greater self-esteem and development of fine motor skills. Teaching a toddler self-help skills fosters independence and confidence. Like any new skill, toddlers need plenty of practice, which you can encourage by playing interactive games.

  1. Follow the Cards

    • Demonstrate the order of self-help tasks such as dressing or hand washing with a game of picture matching. Paste pictures depicting each step of a self-help task on a sheet of paper. For example, the first picture for hand washing would show someone turning on the faucet and running their dirty hands under the water, the second picture would show hands pumping soap, the third picture would show soapy hands scrubbing together and so forth. Next, give your toddler a series of note cards, each of which feature one of the photo steps shown on the paper. Have her arrange the individual note cards so they match the correctly ordered series you completed. Finish the game by completing the task in real life using the pictorial chart as a guide.

    Help Me Wash

    • Apply several small dots of brown eye shadow on your face and ask your toddler to clean them off with a baby wipe or damp towel. This game teaches her how to apply firm, but gentle pressure while scrubbing her body. Remind her to double check for any missed spots or stubborn ones that need extra scrubbing. When she's finished, gently apply a few dots on her face and let her repeat the process on herself in front of a mirror.

    What's Wrong

    • Identifying and correcting self-help mistakes helps reinforce the purpose and order of each step of a task. For example, come out with your coat on backward and your socks pulled half way up your foot. Once she stops laughing, ask her how to make it right or ask her to come and help you fix your clothes. You can also incorrectly dress a doll and ask her to find and correct all the things that need fixing.

    Lunch Date

    • Provide your toddler with a few sets of toddler-sized eating utensils and explain that you're going to play a restaurant game with her dolls or stuffed animals. The object of the game is to set everyone's place and feed them. Show her how to set each place-setting with flatware, utensils and a napkin. Let her practice feeding herself and her toys with a weighted spoon, which makes it easier to control her arm movement. Go around in a circle until she feeds each doll and herself with the spoon.

    2. Previous:

    Next:

    • Teaching Your Toddler to Share
      Teaching Your Toddler to Share Your toddlers language development advances the formation of empathy and first friendships. During the second half of the third year, language becomes more and more of a social tool. Playdates give your child the opport
    • Promoting Cognitive & Language Growth in Toddlers
      Interaction with your toddler is the single most important thing you can do to promote his cognitive development and ability to use language. Children learn by watching and imitating. The more time you spend encouraging your child to produce and unde
    • Development of a Toddler's Memory
      Your toddler may not remember everything you teach him during these formative years, but your interactions will act as building blocks to help him develop his memory as he grows. Its important to keep in mind that your childs memory does have limits