Teaching children with autism to tie their shoes is in some ways really complicated.
But after teaching Lucas to tie his shoes, and then many other clients, I have a system
that works.
So keep watching as I go over the steps to teach shoe tying.
Hi, I'm Doctor Mary Barbera.
Autism mom, board certified behavior analyst, and best selling author.
Each week I provide you with some of my ideas about turning autism around.
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I have a client, we'll call her Suzy.
Who was eight, or nine years old at the time, and I had been consulting with her for four
years.
Before Suzy started school I was trying to convince her mother that we should teach her
to tie her shoes.
Knowing that if Suzy got to school without learning this skill, she probably would not
pick it up easily.
So in second grade just as I had predicted, Suzy could still not tie her shoes.
Even though it had been a goal on her IEP for over a year, with the occupational therapist
working on the goal.
I attended an OT session, and the teaching procedures for ... To try to teach Suzy to
tie her shoes were really pathetic.
I talked to the OT, and tried to convince her to use my techniques, but she just wanted
to keep doing it her own way.
So I talked to Suzy's mom again, sent her a short video modeling clip, and encouraged
her to use my procedures for just five minutes a day, and work with Suzy on her own.
And within two weeks Suzy was tying her shoes.
Now, for those of you that have been following me for awhile, you might remember I did a
blog way back in 2009 when I taught my son Lucas how to tie his shoes, and then went
on to present this as a case study in front of B.F.
Skinner's daughter Julie Vargas at an EBA conference where doctor Vargas was the discussant.
Since then, I've had a lot of success with teaching clients to tie their shoes.
So today I want to go over the few steps for you to learn how to teach your child, or client
how to tie his, or her shoes too.
Whenever we want to increase a behavior, or decrease a behavior we have to start with
assessment.
And this doesn't necessarily just mean tying shoes.
Can the child put their shoes on their feet?
Can they put them on the correct feet?
Can they use velcro?
Can they do velcro straps?
And finally, can they do any steps of the actual shoe tying procedure?
Since everyone ties there shoes a little bit differently, it's important that one person
take the lead in teaching the child, which is usually mom, or a teacher, or an occupational
therapist.
If that person is left handed though, and the child is right handed we want to get a
right handed person to take the lead.
Also, a factor is that this shoe tying should really be practiced daily.
So even a paraprofessional could take the lead with some oversight, and planning from
the team.
You want to get an adult shoe, and then use two different colored laces.
So whether you have a black lace, and a white lace.
Or in this case we have a red, and yellow lace.
And we want to use two different colors, because we're going to give a lot of verbal cues such
as cross red over yellow, and yellow into red.
So we want to have the two different colored laces.
I have found that to be incredibly helpful.
The shoe should not be placed on the child's foot when they're first learning, but instead
be placed on the table, but the shoe has to be facing out.
One of the problems with the OT that was trying to teach Suzy to tie her shoes, is she had
this little foam shoe, which wasn't stable on the table.
And she actually had that foam facing the wrong direction.
And I thought, "This is going nowhere fast."
So the shoe should be placed on the table facing away from the child.
As it would be if [inaudible 00:04:24] was on their own foot.
Then you want to write down the steps of your shoe tying procedure.
And with each step we want to limit it to five words or less.
So my steps to teach Lucas, and my clients were something like cross red over yellow,
yellow into red, pull strings tight, make a loop.
For Lucas at one point he was making the loop too big, so we put masking tape on each one,
and we would just do tape-to-tape and that helped provide the prompting he needed initially.
For professionals, and even some parents taking data on those steps.
Whether they're independent at which steps, in which order might be helpful as well.
We want to not only have the shoe facing out, but if you're teaching the child you don't
want to be sitting on the opposite side of the table.
Stand behind the child, or at least to the side.
But if you're going to give any kind of physical prompting, you really do want to stand behind
the child and give gentle prompting.
You also can consider making a video model of the procedure.
Of your procedure.
And this is important because a lot of kids will see it on video, and actually pick it
up better than even live.
I am going to show you a little video here of ... A video model done with the steps narrated.
Cross blue over red.
Red into blue.
Pull strings tight.
Loop red, around red.
Push blue through.
Pull blue bow.
Pull bows tight.
We want to teach the first step until it's mastered, and then move on to the second step,
and do the whole ... A whole task at the same time.
So for Lucas we had to work on cross red over yellow for a whole session.
Until we got him fluent with that, and then yellow into red, and we can just narrate the
rest of the procedure if the child can't do it.
We always want to start at the beginning even if you're working on step four, you always
want to start on the beginning and make sure each step follows sequentially as it will
come in the natural environment.
Finally, once the skill is mastered with shoe on the table, you'll need to have the child
practice with real shoes, and on their feet.
With the same colored laces on their feet.
Even having the child tie a shoe while you hold it up in kind a situation where it's
going to be on their foot, it's going to be actually at a different angle than flat.
So different kids need different amounts of generalization practice, and different steps
to get them actually on their feet.
And once the child does master it on their feet the other important thing is, let them
tie their shoes even if it's not perfect, even if it's not as tight as you would do
it.
The child still needs practice, and we need to let the child tie their shoes every day.
And not do it for them, or they can lose the skill..
In summary, many people get overwhelmed with the thought of teaching shoe tying, and just
stick with velcro sneakers.
Even for kids who are a lot higher functioning than Lucas, or Suzy are.
But in just five minutes a day, with these procedures, you should be able to see success.
To get you started turning things around for any child with autism, download my free three
step guide, which covers three steps you can take today to help your child, or client with
autism.
Whether you're a novice parent, or a seasoned autism professional I know you'll find this
guide helpful.
Leave me a comment, subscribe to my channel, and share this video to help others.
And I'll see you here next week.