How to Teach Your Child Personal Hygiene

Start early and you can teach your child personal hygiene without nagging.

Teaching your child good personal hygiene habits requires consistency. The easiest way to do this is to start training your child early, model good hygiene habits yourself and focus on making the learning process fun. Try incorporating some of the methods educators use with preschoolers to reinforce the hygiene habits you want your child to exhibit. Using such methods, you can teach your child good personal hygiene while minimizing the need to constantly fuss.

Things You'll Need

• Soap
• Toothbrush
• Toothpaste
• Washcloth
• Poster board
• Colored marker
• Stickers

Instructions

1. Share your personal hygiene routine with your child on a regular basis. When your child is young, she will naturally be interested in everything mom and dad are doing. Build on that natural curiosity and the desire to copy your actions by allowing your child to watch as you perform your morning hygiene routines. As you go through your routine, explain in age-appropriate language why you are taking each step and the correct way to perform each action. Encourage your child to mimic you with her own personal hygiene supplies, including soap, a toothbrush, toothpaste and a washcloth.

2. Create a reminder board. Using a marker and a piece of poster board, create a personal hygiene chart. List the tasks (such as brushing your teeth, washing your face, taking a bath and washing your hands when you go to the bathroom) down the left side of the board. List the days of the week along the top of the board and draw in lines to create boxes for each daily task. Hang this reminder board in your child's bathroom or another space where he can see it easily. Check off each task he accomplishes each day without a reminder. You can reward preschool-age children with a sticker. For elementary-school children, create a reward program similar to what they are experiencing at school, where they earn special treats or activities by reaching certain achievement levels.

3. Develop a daily personal hygiene schedule to help your child learn to be consistent with her personal hygiene habits. Again, borrow from the educator's toolbox and set up specific time guidelines for when certain actions should be performed. For example, you may decide that morning hygiene routines should be accomplished between 8 am and 9 am, before your child has breakfast. Establish this as a household-wide schedule so it will be easier for your child to develop consistency.

4. Talk to your child regularly about the safety and health aspects of personal hygiene habits. Incorporate these discussions at appropriate times as you go through your day, and your child will learn to associate good personal hygiene habits with normal daily activities. For example, when you grab a tissue before sneezing or turn your head when you sneeze, explain to your child that you don't want to spread any possible germs to her, so that's why you turned your head. Having these regular discussions will help to reinforce these concepts to your child naturally.

Tips & Warnings

• Use pictures cut from magazines or clip art illustrations instead of words to create a personal hygiene chart for children who are too young to read.

References

• Education.com: Wash, Brush, Comb! Developing Preschool Hygiene Habits
• Lifespan: Teach Children to Practice Good Hygiene
• Education.com: Good Hygiene for Your Child