MY STYLE

Language Skills

Say it in Style

Between age 2 -3 years your child is able to follow more complex directives. Use this routine to help your child practice following sequenced directives, for example: “slide one foot in the pants then the other foot”, “ take off your PJ’s and put on your clothes”.

By the age of 2 your child’s speech is becoming more clear and accurate. Dressing activities will help him practice naming body parts, naming clothings for example: “You can give him cues such as: “the socks go on your… ? and your child should say feet. Your child can practice making choices about what to wear, what color t-shirt they want. Your child can start saying exactly what he would like to wear with two word sentences. For example his blue shirt or yellow shorts.

Dressing activities is a good way to learn new vocabulary (summer clothes/winter clothes). By age 3, your child can practice making choices about what to wear, and express it using three to four word sentences. For example: I want my red jacket. By this age your child should also be able to understand the concept of weather and its relation to clothes. So you can tell your child it looks windy outside, what would you like to wear? He should be able to answer with, “I need my jacket.”

Between the age 2 – 3, your child would able to:

  • Know some spatial concepts, such as “in” or “on”
  • Know pronouns, such as “you,” “me” or “her”
  • Know descriptive words, such as “big” or “small”
  • Answer simple questions
  • Begin to use more pronouns, such as “you” or “I”
  • Begin to use plurals, such as “shoes” or “socks”

If you feel that your child is not meeting these milestones this could raise some red flags that may be of concern. It is advisable that you learn more about your child’s language development and what is expected for his age by filling ONESTI’s Developmental Screening checklist and talking to our professionals.

ONESTI will help you use this repetitive routine to expand your child’s vocabulary, will give you strategies on how to create opportunities for him to practice his expressive and receptive skills to improve language.

Healthy Positioning

Balance Mode

Have you ever found yourself in this funny situation where your child is trying to keep balance standing on one leg while you’re trying to put his pants onto the other? You always try to think of the most practical ways you can get this task done as fast and as easy as possible. During dressing or undressing you can use different positions to get the task done! Some positions are difficult to hold and some can be easier and more practical. But what is important is to find what position is best fit for your child to get dressed or undressed without struggling with keeping balance and coordinating his movement.

ONESTI will help you find out what position is better for you and your child in all stages of the dressing and undressing process to keep this routine smoothe, safe, and achievable in reasonable time.

Eye Hand Coordination

Zip up and Go

Your child needs to coordinate his hands and eye movement to take out his clothes from the closet, to open the drawer, to turn his clothes in the right direction, to zip and unzip the jacket, to button up the shirt, to choose the right shoe and put it on the right foot, and many more examples of the eye hand coordination required in the dressing and undressing routine.  Any difficulty in this skill can make these easy tasks difficult for your child.

ONESTI will provide you with specific exercises to enhance your child’s eye hand coordination. Meanwhile and as your child is improving his skills, ONESTI will give you ideas and strategies to use in modifying the setting to become more adapted to your child’s current needs.

Sensory Tolerance

Itchy Free

It’s cold outside, you’re getting ready to go out and at the last minute you find yourself running around the house behind your child who’s refusing to wear his wool jacket complaining that it’s prickly. You’re getting ready for bed time and your child is taking forever to choose his PJs because his favorite one is in the laundry. He refuses to wear any other PJ because he feels like it’s either too tight, or too small, or too rough, or too thick… When he finds himself uncomfortable in anything you try to put on him, he keeps removing them and runs around in his onesie. He may even refuse to wear boots and prefers his worn out soft running shoes. What you need to know is that there are reasons for such behaviors and such preferences. Sensory tolerance is the first thing to be looked into! Which is the ability of the person to tolerate sensory stimulations.

When a child has intolerance to some kind of tactile stimulus it can result in refusal to any type of clothing with the same texture. ONESTI will help you learn more about your child’s sensory preferences and how you can adapt the environment during bath time to suit his sensory needs. Our “Senses in harmony” program will provide you with individualized sensory exercises to decrease discomfort, increase his sensory tolerance level, and enjoy bath time with a splash.

Challenging Behaviors

When challenging behaviors occur during a daily routine like dressing, you will find yourself running around with your little one to get everything done on time, like:

  • If your child is not ready to finish a certain activity, like watching TV, when you call him to put on his pajamas for sleep.
  • If your child is hungry when he is back from school but you want him to change his clothes immediately.
  • If your child feels anxious and doesn’t want to get dressed and leave you in the morning to go to the daycare.

It is important to know that this is a transition phase, and for some children it might be frustrating or it might provoke anxiety, and will lead to different challenging behaviors.

ONESTI will help you identify these problems and give you the right tools and strategies to learn how to manage this routine more easily and with less stress. We will help you teach your child how to follow instructions, how to be independent, as well as how to enjoy your time together during this frequent routine.

How Can ONESTI Help You

Fill out Onesti’s “Independent Me” checklist to identify your child’s challenges related to this routine. “The Independent Me” program will give you the right tools and strategies to make this routine more manageable. It will also help you find out what position is better for you and your child in all stages of the dressing and undressing process, give you ideas and strategies to use in modifying the setting to become more adapted to your child’s current needs and sensory preferences.