Tying shoe laces

Thanks Trendygran, someone understands.
He was wearing nappies, or rather pullups, when he started school because he had problems going to the toilet. He had to have medication every day, because his diet was so limited, with not liking foods mixed, and foods not having to touch each other on the plate. When I am in the kitchen, he will come and help me get the vegetables ready now and eat half a dozen cherry tomatoes before they get to the table. And if he has not been to the toilet for a couple of days, he will raid the fridge for tomatoes, because he now knows that vegetables are better than medication.

At school they have been studying the Victorians, poor, middle and wealthy. Someone cooked gruel for them, and he liked it! It was salty, he said.

When I was little Mum had a sort of card with two rows of holes to teach us to do up our laces and tie them. Doing it that way was more like a game and I soon picked it up.

Pre-school children are often much brighter or more capable than we realise. When my youngest was about to start preschool (age 4 and a half), I mistakenly thought he had to know how to count to 10 and be able to write his name and address. I can't remember where I got this misinformation from, but he learned both in an afternoon. I never would have thought it.

Jendurham, no wonder your grandson is proud of his lace tying skills,even if it takes a while. Of all the ASD children I worked with for over 15 years, only a very few managed to tie their laces. When you think about it, the procedure is quite complicated and something the ASD child's brain usually finds impossible to work out. How many times did we utter the words "Thank heavens for Velcro. " I dread to think!

Greatnan, We have this problem in the family as well but not to a disabling level, that must be very difficult. DiL was diagnosed with it when she developed arthritis earlier this year, (doctors have spent six months trying to decide what kind of arthritis, there are far more forms of it than I ever realised.)

We came to the conclusion that DD probably has it as well as DD and Dil were both dancers and used to have friendly competions to see who was the most flexible, and they are both very flexible, even in their 40s. That has stopped! DD's dancing teacher used to comment on how loose her joints were.

Graduate unemployment is a real problem these days. It never occurred to T Blair that if you increase the number of graduates, the danger is that supply will exceed demand and drive down the employability of graduates.

I have no idea if my GC can tie shoelaces because they have never had to. Do Cubs and Brownies learn the skill of knot tying these days? I must ask my Cub and Beaver GSs.

Flickety - my grandson has dyspraxia and hyper-mobile joints and flat feet - he has an MSc. (Can't get a job, though!)

Once power laces have been invented (Back to the Future 2), no one will need to tie them.

DS and I both suffer from different levels of dyspraxia. When he started school it quickly became clear that he was an intellectual high flyer (he is now an academic). His teacher said to me one day:'In 25 years time he will be Professor P'. To which my response was; 'Yes, but he stil;;l wont be able to tie his shoe laces.' His teacher agreed.

I remember my mother teaching me to tie a bow with my dressing gown cord when I was about four years old, a skill that could be transferred to shoe laces and other things that needed tying. I also remember her teaching me my tables at about the same time using dried butter beans on a big green tea tray. Funny – I hadn't thought of either of those things for decades.

I was reading fluently and knew all my tables up to 12 x 12 by the time I started school just before I was 5. However, I couldn't tie my laces until I was 9, and was the slowest girl in the street to learn to play two-balls, hopscotch, fast skipping, etc. My handwriting is still childish - anybody could copy my signature. I just did not have good hand-eye co-ordination.

I think Velcro is wonderful - I have it on my knee supports and saves all that complicated buckling to fasten them round my leg.
None of my grandchildren fasten the laces on their trainers - the just tuck the loose ends in to the top. They seem to think this is 'cool'.

Nellie! (Though she'd probably just get her sister to do them for her!)

Ana or trip up perhaps!

yoga! Poor DS...

I blame delayed toilet training on all the technical developments with disposable nappies. All too easy to manage for parent /child.. easier than washing pants etc when they pee in them! Good old terries! smelling awful in the bucket, boiling away, freezing stiff on the line! no wonder I was keen to get them trained! DGDs both in pants by 28 months , DGS a little bit older but well before 3.
But often get two or three in a class most Septembers sent to school in pull ups!

When my DS (now age 40+) started school he had shoes with laces and I made sure that he was able to tie them himself. He came home one day and said that he wished that I hadn't taught him to tie his laces. When I asked him why, he said that he had been asked by the teacher to tie all the other childrens' laces as well as his own as he was one of the few who could do it

Teacher friends have told me of cases of children not toilet trained on starting school, blame the nappy manufacturers for encouraging the parents. Table manners and eating with a knife and fork, don't hold your breath. My children could tie their laces but forty years ago we did teach our children to be independent now it seems parents want their children to stay dependent on them. They should not complain when it comes back to bite them on the bum.

Children starting school in nappies? WTF? That's horrible...
I do remember school training in a) cleaning shoes, and b) mending a fuse, but as for the rest of it... The wettest of the kids I knew was sent to school with talcum powder for after swimming, and he was teased unmercifully!

There are many things children coming to school can't do any more - go to the toilet, wear pants, get dressed, talk, eat with a knife and fork - one of the reasons I can't carry on full time teaching anymore, it is impossible to reach government targets when teachers have to teach basic preschool and toddler skills first!

My children HAD to be able to tie shoes laces before they could start at school but my friend tells me that they have children starting school still wearing nappies so, presumably, these children can't do shoes laces.

One of my grandsons, aged 12 and a half, has only just mastered shoe lace tying, my own kids, and all the other grandchildren, apart from the littlie, learned by the ages of 5 to 7.

My ten year old grandson, with ASD, can tie his shoelaces.
It's funny watching him when he's playing football and one comes undone. He just sits down in the middle of the pitch and ties it up again. It can take him 5 minutes, wuth people shouting at him to get off the pitch.
He's been able to do it for two years and was so proud of himself the first time he did it.

I'm waiting for the day that the head teacher starts to back off with the shoe lace thing, because they can't tie their's either!

Since most kids' shoes use velcro, it hardly matters . As with most things, they learn how to do something when they have to or when they want to. Simples.

DDs one and two could tie shoelaces at the age of four-and-a-half because they had to. DD3 couldn't wouldn't until she was ten or eleven. But then, she didn't need to.

No, none of them! My 12 (yes, 12!) year old grandson wears shoes with laces, and never undoes them - except when he comes to my house! I undo them, to encourage him to tie them again, and he howls with disapproval. Basically, he can't be bothered. He says he can't make them stay tied. I tell him to practise and he will be able to

One of my 6 year old twin GDs can tie shoelaces - the other can't be bothered! I dare say she'll catch up.