How to Teach Children to Tie Shoes
Kids feel a sense of accomplishment after finally mastering the skill of shoe tying. Parents breathe a sigh of relief. A popular question posed to parents of 4- to 6-year-olds is: "Has he learned to tie his shoes yet?" Don't succumb to stress over your child learning to tie his shoes. The Healthy Children website contains a list of developmental delay warning signs for 4- to 5-year-olds, containing no mention of shoe tying. Kids' small motor skills---the ability to do intricate work with fingers---develops at each child's own pace. Shoe tying relies on your child's small motor development, so practice is key but time is necessary.
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Instructions
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Hold up the laces with one in each hand and cross them. Bring one lace under and through the space between the crossed laces. Pull the laces apart tightly.
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Make a loop from one lace. Hold the loop between your index finger and thumb at the bottom of the loop.
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Pull the loose lace all the way around the grasped loop. Push the center of this lace under the space beneath the loop.
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Let go of the first lace loop and grasp the second loop. Pick up the loop you released with your other hand. Pull each loop simultaneously apart to tighten the knot.
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Tips & Warnings
Teach your child to double-knot by crossing the tied bow loops and pushing one underneath, then pulling the loops apart firmly.
Buy shoes or shoe-shapes designed for teaching children to tie shoes. "Teaching shoes" have dual-colored laces so the student can discern between the two loops, Find them at teacher supply stores, or make them instead by cutting two colors of shoelaces in half and tying them together, then lacing them through an old shoe.
Do not tie your child's shoes for her after she has learned the steps to tying her own shoes.
Forgo Velcro-closure type shoes for your child once he is working on shoe tying. Some of his motivation to keep tying comes from the desire not to trip over his untied shoes. He needs to wear shoes with laces to experience the need to tie them.
References
- Photo Credit boy ties the shoe-lace image by Stepanov from Fotolia.com
