Getting Dressed

My son has always had problems with coordination, a common trait in children with Autism and Asperger's, which makes things like getting dressed very difficult for him. Buttons, zips and fasteners are a virtual minefield when it comes to manoevering his little fingers around them.

When he is not at school, I tend to dress him in things like T shirts and jogging bottoms, as they are easy to put on, and if he can dress himself he can feel a measure of accomplishment. With school uniform, I make sure that I buy elasticated trousers, rather than anything with a zip, button or hook, as he would have a lot of difficulty with these. He wars a polo neck top, which has 3 buttons on it, and when he gets dressed in the morning, I usually encourage him to fasten one or more of the buttons himself and give him a sticker for his chart when he has done it.

The school has PE once a week and somehow, when they were getting changed yesterday, he managed to lose his polo shirt, coming home in his PE top instead. He very often loses items, particularly jumpers, and it is really important that I label everything.

After Easter, the class are starting swimming lessons for the first time. In preperation, I am encouraging him to practice getting dressed and undressed. He is OK when everything is laid out, but cannot negotiate items that are inside out and struggles with socks and underpants. I have to buy pants with pictures on the front, so he can see which way round they go, but of course, this is going to be the butt of jokes with the other pupils in the class.

To complicate matters further, he wears glasses, and I am worried that he may lose them in the changing room.

The educational psychologist recommeded that the school refer him to Occpational Therapy, and I hope that once they start working with him, he will further improve in his steps toward independence.