Dress Up

Many children enjoy playing dress up. We have a large toy box full of dress up clothes, plus a place for them to hang their favorites with accessories. While adults look at this as being silly or just for fun, there are many beneficial learning opportunities in this game.

His favorite princess dress

Self Help Skills: Learning to get dressed is clearly an important goal. This gives kids a chance to practice on their own time when you are not rushing to get somewhere.

Pirate shirt

Fine Motor: Buttons, zippers, buckles, and ties are all great fine motor activities. The clothes designed for every day dress up play (not just Halloween costumes) are often made with larger, easy to manipulate fasteners. Large buttons with even larger button holes, zippers with large teeth to help with easy grip, and buckles that are easy to hook, help build confidence when learning.

A pilot and a ninja

Pretend Play: Acting out situations is great for improving social skills. Having costumes of various occupations, leads to conversations about what they each do at work. Having animal costumes allows for teaching animal sounds, movements, and interactions.

Not a costume, dressed for school photo day

Gross Motor: The most common ways of playing in costumes around here are largely gross motor. We crawl around like animals, we rush from person to person using the stethoscope to see if everyone is healthy, we swing the soft sword in the air yelling "yar!" and we can't forget the ninja moves. Yes, I said we. Getting down on your kids level and playing with them is important and fun.

Yar!

While playing dress up may seem silly, it teaches many important skills that you child will need to learn as they grow older.

Ready for school picture day