5 Tips For Teaching Your Child To Tie Their Shoes

We are entering the stage of shoes with shoelaces and that means teaching the boys how to tie their shoes. Little T has difficulty with his fine motor skills so shoelaces are something we haven’t tackled with him. Drama King got his first pair of shoes with laces when his Heelys arrived for review. He has struggled to tie his shoes but these tips helped him dramatically.

Visually distinguish the right from the left shoe

We used beads from our stash and threaded them onto the center of the bottom shoelace. You can write on the shoes, use safety pins, or any number of things to make the right and left shoe look different. This ensures the child puts the shoe on the correct foot the first time every time. You can start this from a young age even before you are ready for shoe tying lessons.

Songs, stories, and sayings

Bunny ears. Squirrels and trees. One second Ian knot. There are so many easy to remember sayings out there to help kids remember the steps to tie a shoe. Loop, swoop and pull seem to be the most common method but I discovered the Ian knot and am obsessed with mastering it. I could save so much time if I could tie my shoes in one second.

Shoe Tying Aids

We have seen lots of shoe tying aids. Multicolored laces are perfect for remembering which part goes where. Practice toys or shoes and dolls.

Learning tools

There are many toys and books on the market that have laces from a young age so children can get used to the concept before it becomes a necessity to tie their shoes.

Practice. Practice. Practice. 

No one can master something the first time so keep practicing and soon your child will be tying their own shoes! If all else fails, you can always replace the laces with a locking or no-tie solution.