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Toddler - Week #57


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Week 57: Let's Change Clothes!

By Meg Leonard, edHelperBaby

Milestones
           Your 57-week-old baby probably amazes you daily with some new antic or funny face. Enjoy this precious time as your baby changes and grows. Remember, just a short year ago, when your baby was still a mystery to you? Now, you are able to communicate with your baby through gestures and a language that only those close to him understand. He continues to learn new skills in order to become more independent.

   

Dressing and Undressing
           Your baby's gross motor skills get a lot of practice every day when she walks or runs around the house, climbs up the stairs, or pulls herself up on things. Don't forget to work with her fine motor skills. Fine motor movements are little movements, such as self-feeding or drawing with a crayon. You can also help your baby practice fine motor skills by teaching her how to get herself undressed.

   

Activities
           In the morning, at bath time, or at bedtime, show your baby how to get undressed. See if she will help you remove her shoes and socks, pull an arm out of her sleeve, or lift a leg out of her pajamas. Work with this for a few days and see if she can gradually learn to undress herself.

   

More Vocabulary Building
    Book: Happy Baby Words by Priddy Books
       This book is another picture book that shows simple photographs to help your baby expand his vocabulary. In Happy Baby Words , there is no story line. Each pair of pages has a theme and could stand alone. The first few pages deal with body parts, which are essential words to teach when helping your baby learn to undress himself. The next set of pages deal with articles of clothing. The pages following this show a toddler dressing himself. After that, the pages deal with meal time, bath time, and play time.

       The book's simple set-up and sturdy construction make it an ideal book for your young learner. This book will survive many trips to the floor when pushed from the height of a chair or many ambitious teething sessions by your baby. You can use the book to reinforce vocabulary by asking your baby to point to specific pictures. If your baby is not ready for this, you can name the pictures as your baby points to them. This book can grow with your baby as he learns new words. Eventually, he will be able to read it to you himself!

   

Real Life with Baby
           When I first came upon this idea, I thought it was slightly crazy. I had vision of a near naked baby running around at a play date. I wasn't sure why I would want to willingly help Mary learn how to remove the clothes that we sometimes fight to get on in the morning. However, I decided to be a sport and give it a try.

       The morning after I decided to try this activity, Mary surprised me by reaching down to the zipper on her wearable blanket and attempting to unzip herself. She has watched us do this countless times, but this was the first time I could remember her trying to do it on her own. I unzipped the blanket a few inches and encouraged her to pull the zipper up the rest of the way. She played with the zipper, obviously interested, but was unable to move it. Her interest affirmed my decision to give this activity a try.

       When we arrived home from our busy day, I asked Mary to help me take her shoes off. She gladly came to me and sat down. She then reached over and pulled at the Velcro on her tennis shoes. She couldn't get the shoes off on her own, but she knew what I wanted her to do. Next, I told her to take her socks off. She reached down, but couldn't get those off without help either. Nonetheless, she understood what I wanted her to do in both cases.

       At bath time, I asked Mary to help me take off her shirt. She pulled up on the bottom hem of her shirt, playing with it. She didn't try to lift it over her head, but today's shirt was snug-fitting. With a looser shirt, I think she just may have lifted it up. She definitely showed me that she had an interest and some understanding of how to get undressed.

       However, this interest didn't last long. After a few successful incidents in one day, Mary showed little interest in undressing herself for the remainder of the week. I thought that it may have something to do with the fact that I was trying this at night when she was tired. One morning when getting her dressed, I asked for her assistance. She wasn't interested at this time either. As I have learned over the past year, it takes many times to teach a new skill. An interest one day does not mean that the interest will still be there the next day, or even later on the same day. I wasn't expecting Mary to want to get herself entirely undressed in one week's time, but I thought her interest might carry over from one day to the next. As with other skills, I'll keep working on this with her. Eventually, I know she'll get the hang of it. Then, my fear of her getting undressed in public might actually become a reality!

       Mary truly enjoys the books by Priddy Books. She asks for the names of the pictures over and over. She still hasn't really been able to point to specific pictures when they are named, other than to point to the babies in the book. I know this will come in time. We use the body part pictures to reinforce the names of Mary's body parts, as we are still working on those. She knows most of the parts of her face, but is still rather inconsistent about pointing to them when asked.

   

Taming Your Clothing Beast
           Organizational experts recommend that you go through your closet at the end of each season. Get rid of any clothes that you have not worn in a year, with the exception of fancy dress clothes that you may not have had the opportunity to wear. Donate these items to a local charity, hold a rummage sale at your home, or swap items with a friend or family member. If you are unsure of whether or not to get rid of an article of clothing, set it aside and make plans to wear it that week. Let this be the determining factor. Once you wear it again, you may remember why it does not get worn often or you may remember that you do like it and put it back into circulation.

       You can practice the same organizational plan with your children's clothes. If you want to save the clothes for another child, be sure to have plastic bins with sturdy lids on hand so that you can sort the clothes right into these containers. Label them so that finding the appropriate sizes will be easy.

   


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