Independence - Shoe Tying

This year we have been working on tying our shoes. This may not seem like a big deal, but once you get to middle school, it is awfully difficult for parents to find velcro shoes in big enough sizes. As a result, either parents and teachers tie shoes multiple times every day or we learn to tie our own shoes.

At the beginning of the year, none of my students were able to tie their own shoes.  Some of them struggle with the fine motor skills needed to tie a shoe. Others had just never figured out the complex steps.

Last year when I was doing my practicum, I found a method for tying shoes that doesn't require complex coordinated movement with two hands at once. As a result, it is much easier for those students who have more difficulty with fine motor tasks. It is also easy to break down into distinct steps. We started working on tying our shoes after Christmas break and three students are able to complete all the steps. Two others are a couple steps away from being able to do it without assistance.

Personally, I keep learning how important it is to lay out information in very specific steps for my students. I have to be very careful how I first introduce information because my students will follow a routine very rigidly once they have learned that routine. If they learn it wrong the first time, it is hard to reteach new routines. Also, too many instructions at once only serve to confuse my students. I am learning to break tasks up into their simplest components. It is so much fun to celebrate the small (yet big) successes and watch my students become more independent!