by Sam Costantino

Created on: April 26, 2009   Last Updated: April 27, 2009

Teaching a child to tie his or her shoes may be a rather daunting task, especially to one not used to working with children in an instructional setting. Still, unlike years ago when Kindergarten teachers included this activity as part of their curriculum, a child entering school now without this ability is at a disadvantage.

As a teacher of Developmentally Disabled children and adults, in my working years, I found that one of the deficits these people inevitably had was dressing themselves. Particularly difficult was shoe tieing. It appeared to be hard for the Developmentally Disabled person because of their lack of fine motor skills.

After several attempts with varying degrees of success, I began to train these people using a relatively easy technique. Basically, you will be teaching large motor skills involving hands and arms, then transferring these skills once learned, to fine motor areas of performance. Before beginning your instruction, go through the process yourself, tie a bow using a length of clothesline-sized rope. A three foot piece of rope is suggested, but any manageable size will do. Make your movements exaggerated. This will insure that your pupil will follow your hands and arms. A doorknob or other object may be used as long as it can be used to hold the rope firmly.

Have the child or adult sit in front of a chair, door knob, or whatever is holding the rope, facing the rope ends. Then pick up his/her hands and have the student follow your movements several times. Gradually reduce your assistance until the task is being done independently. At every correct step, give a reasonable amount of praise. When an error is made say something like "Here, try it this way." Avoid making the experience a task which must be done. If the child shows reluctance to continue the training, stop and wait for a better time. Try not to have the child associate the instruction with any negative experience. This skill is not so important that you can risk affecting the child's general attitude toward training situations.

After your student gains some facility with the rope, change rope for a large shoelace, then a normal sized lace. After the task is accomplished with the smaller lace, switch to a shoe (a large shoe is ideal) which is sitting in front of the pupil, but not on his/her foot. Graduation to the student's own shoe is the last step, and of course, a great deal of praise should accompany that success.

Keep in mind that this task is brand new to the learner and the skill may have to be refreshed using the rope.

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