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Uno Mas! Bulletin Board :: Down Syndrome :: Down Syndrome General Forum :: tying shoes? Author Topic: tying shoes? (Read 594 times) meghans_mom member is offline Joined: Jun 2002 Gender: Female Posts: 2,611 Location: Long Island New York tying shoes? « Thread Started on Mar 1, 2008, 8:37am » meghan really, really wants to learn to tie her shoes...i know there was a thread on here once before but i did a search and can't find it. any good tips/tricks/websites...? she's gotten the knot part down, but I can't figure out how to teach her the bow parts. I'm also going to ask her OT for help, but figured you guys were much better resources!!!! thanks in advance! laurie Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Laurie steffaroni member is offline Joined: Apr 2007 Gender: Female Posts: 174 Re: tying shoes? « Reply #1 on Mar 1, 2008, 6:45pm » I dunno I gave up 4 a while and velcro is the thing in our house or slip on vans sorry would love to hear what others have to say but its importance wasn't really high at our house then or now for that matter but an easier way perhaps .I'd love to hear it.Steff Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged "He cannot see that if he goes You'll never fill that space. You'll spend your whole life searching For that laugh, those eyes, that face." Still looking... Miss U KEEKS!! CC member is offline Christopher ~ Age 17 Joined: Jan 2007 Gender: Female Posts: 2,462 Re: tying shoes? « Reply #2 on Mar 1, 2008, 8:57pm » Chris can tie his shoes very well but any chance he can get out of doing it LOL he will Christopher's OT sent home step by step directions and since Chris has tied his shoes for some time now I no longer have it. If after talking to your OT you still need more info let me know and I will ask her for another copy Best of Luck CC ~ Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Jenifer member is offline Wife to Todd, and Mom to Josh, 24...Jana, 21...and Joy (ds), 8 Joined: Apr 2002 Gender: Female Posts: 444 Location: Des Moines, Iowa Re: tying shoes? « Reply #3 on Mar 1, 2008, 9:37pm » This is how I tie my shoes, and how I taught my two older kids. They picked it up pretty quickly. I haven't tried it with Joy yet, but it's just a matter of time. I think it's easier once you get the basic movements down. Good luck! http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged "Remember...as far as anyone knows, we're a nice, normal family." -- Homer Simpson laurasnowbird member is offline Joined: Oct 2002 Gender: Female Posts: 2,564 Location: Grand Blanc, Michigan Re: tying shoes? « Reply #4 on Mar 1, 2008, 11:33pm » Laurie, This is old....and I think it was from something posted here on Uno. I saved it for when we get around to it. It specifically addressed that bow part, so I hope it helps! DOWN SYNDROME NEWS VOL. 20 NO.9 PAGE 121 Steps to Shoe Tying Success By Meg Egan Cheryl Beahn figured her 7-year-old son, Ryan, would wear Velcro shoes for a long time. Ryan has mental retardation, but since he had early trouble with motor skills, and for a time had difficulty just picking things up, Beahn never expected her son would arrive home from school knowing how to tie his shoes. But one day he walked in grinning, plopped himself down on the floor, stuck one hand behind his back, and proceeded to tie his sneaker by himself. Thanks to a simple shoe-tying method developed by Kim Mickley, COTA, Ryan has been relishing this bit of independence ever since. "Ryan-he gets so ecstatic. Tongue-tied," his mother said. "This is a real thrill. He's showing some independence... He's being just like his brother and sister. He's doing what they do. Little things that others can do that he can't-he notices." In the last year Mickley has taught 15 children with varying degrees of mental retardation and autism to tie their shoes. Before then, she averaged one or two students a year. "In the past I would teach children the way I tie my shoes, telling them to take whatever lace was on top and pull in under-those sorts of instructions," she said. "That's so hard for figure-ground perception." Mickley is an employee of Colonial Northampton Intermediate Unit Number 20 in Easton, PA, which provides special education services to 13 school districts in a three-county area. Her task-oriented method breaks shoe-tying into several specific steps, each of which a child begins by using a dominant hand- "the hand you hold your pencil with," Mickley tells them. She frequently works with students at a desk or on the floor, one shoe off and facing in the same direction as the bare foot, with the laces hanging down, one on either side of the shoe. Mickley first asks students to raise their dominant hands and place their non-dominant hands behind their backs to reinforce that these are the hands they ought to use to begin each step. She doesn't refer to hands as being "right" or "left," since many of her students don't understand the distinction. Students use the dominant hand to pick up the lace on the dominant side and cross it over the shoe. With the same hand they cross the lace on the opposite side over to make an "X". "The emphasis of this is that you learn each step and you don't go on to the next one until you learn that step," Mickley said. "We would practice this (and each of the subsequent steps) at least five times, until the child could do it without me talking them through it." With the non-dominant hand still behind their backs, students next slide the dominant side lace, put it under the "X" and grab with the dominant hand. They use the non-dominant hand to grab the other lace, and then pull both sides tight. Mickley again practices the step at least five times, then has the students use the dominant hand to make a medium-sized loop with the lace on the dominant side, and hold it against the shoe with the thumb and forefinger, tail hanging down. After practicing making loops on the dominant side, students use the non-dominant hand to pick up the other lace and wrap it around behind the loop toward themselves: clockwise. For the next step she has them make a fist with the non-dominant hand, and use that thumb to push the lace through the circle and away from their bodies, then hold it there. Once again, both steps require practice. Next, the dominant hand drops its loop and grabs the lace resting in the non-dominant thumb and forefinger. This, too, requires practice. Finally, the non-dominant hand grabs the other loop with its thumb and forefinger, and students pull both loops sideways. Mickley suggested practicing all the steps beginning at number three-making the first loop-several times with the shoe off the foot, resting on the floor or desk. Then students must practice tying with the shoe on the foot. Mastering this may take additional practice since laces tend to shorten once students put their shoes on. As a final step, Mickley reviews how to untie the laces without knotting them: by pulling one of the tails, not the loops. Mickley often encounters students who have learned to tie their shoes using the "rabbit ear method," in which they make two loops, cross one over and under the other, then pull them into a bow. She said that although they may successfully tie their shoes this way, she always teaches these students her method. "The rabbit ear method, obviously that's not appropriate for adults," she said. "You don't see adults tie that way. So eventually they'll have to learn the other way." Mickley sees a lot of students with high-level autism, many of whom have problems with motor planning. One, a 10-year-old whom she treated for five years, was one of the only kids in his class who couldn't tie his shoes-and until she developed her dominant-hand method, she didn't foresee him ever learning how. "It was just, basically, impossible to teach him how (using other methods)," she said. "There was no way he could remember all the steps," Using the new method, the boy learned in two 45-minute sessions. Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Laura, mother to Nicholas (23), Victoria (11), Ethan DS (8 years) and Aidan (4 years) "The true realist is the person who sees things both as they are, and as they can be. In every situation there is the possibility of improvement; in every life the hidden capacity for something better." Lester B. Pearson meghans_mom member is offline Joined: Jun 2002 Gender: Female Posts: 2,611 Location: Long Island New York Re: tying shoes? « Reply #5 on Mar 2, 2008, 12:56pm » thank you all!! I bought MM a puzzle that has a shoe w/ laces....haven't opened it yet, but will one of these days. Unfortunately MM's OT is pretty much useless (I am NOT happy w/ her...but thats a whole other topic) but I'll hit up one of the OTs at her old preschool to see if they have anything for me, in addition to the other resources posted here. thanks again for everything!! laurie Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Laurie mommygwen member is offline Joined: Mar 2006 Gender: Female Posts: 292 Location: Richmond, Virginia Re: tying shoes? « Reply #6 on Mar 2, 2008, 7:23pm » It took Greg a long time (more that 3 years) to learn to tie his shoes but he wanted to keep trying. I did not use any "rabbit ear" or other "method" that he would have to unlearn to tie shoes has an adult. I broke it into steps like the one described above. Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person. Chris too member is offline Peek a boo! Joined: Mar 2007 Gender: Female Posts: 1,798 Location: Indiana Re: tying shoes? « Reply #7 on Mar 2, 2008, 7:55pm » Oh good, Laura. I just found my copy of these instructions ready to paste them in here, but you beat me to it. I love this method. I've taught one son this way & I'll be teaching the next one soon (he's only 4, but I think he'll get it). Let us know, Laurie, when MM gets it, so we can all celebrate with you Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Chris - Ron's wife & mom to Mary(16), Katie(14), Betsy(11), William(8), Davey(6), and Stevie(5) Renee' member is offline Joined: Apr 2002 Gender: Female Posts: 1,465 Location: Texas Re: tying shoes? « Reply #8 on Mar 3, 2008, 4:39pm » I have tried and L can't. 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