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Shoelace Tips for Teaching Children
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Most children are taught to tie their shoelaces between the ages of three and five years old. This section presents
several tips for teaching children, plus something for the teacher!
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Children Learning To Tie Shoelaces
- Replace thin shoelaces with something easier to grip. Soft, wide (but not too fat) laces are ideal.
- Thick shoelaces also provide extra friction in the eyelets, which helps keep the
Starting Knot tight while working on the tricky finishing bow.
- Replace slippery synthetic shoelaces with ones made of cotton or other natural fibers, as these provide better grip
and also help keep the Starting Knot tight.
- Use a
Double Starting Knot, which keeps things even tighter.
- Make sure the shoes fit snugly. If the shoe is already nice and tight, the shoelaces don't have to be tied quite so
tightly, making it easier while learning.
- Sit comfortably and practice with a shoe on a table, or with a shoelace or rope wrapped around the thigh, instead
of awkwardly reaching down to tie your shoes.
- Buy training shoelaces with half one color and half another color, or join together two half shoelaces of different
colors (as per
Half & Half Lacing), making it easier to follow either colored diagrams or verbal instructions.
- Use a felt tip marker to permanently highlight the points on the shoelace that should be gripped together when
making a loop or loops.
- Knot the very ends of each shoelace to stop those ends being accidentally pulled through the knot (when tightening)
or out of the eyelets (when loosening).
- A neater alternative to knotting the ends is to push the aglet back into the end of the shoelace, resulting in a
thick, bulged end with the aglet inside. It's a bit like turning a sock inside out by pushing in the toe. Note that
this only works with some laces, particularly with flat ones.
- Make sure the child's shoelaces are untied every night when they remove their shoes. This will ensure that they
can't take a shortcut and try to shove their foot into a shoe that's still tied. Besides being better for both the
feet and the shoes, the daily ritual of tying also helps them to learn more quickly.
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Left Handed Children / Teachers
- Sit in front of your child and have them mirror your movements. Make sure that they also mirror the
Starting Knot in order to prevent the finished result becoming an un-balanced
Granny Knot (which comes undone).
- Alternatively, try the
Ian Knot, in which neither hand is really dominant.
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Tips For The Teacher
- Before teaching any shoelace knot to your child, try learning a new knot yourself, particularly the
Ian Knot (if you don't already know it). This is a great way of recalling the difficulty and frustration of
having to pay attention to "Loops" and "Loose Ends" and what to hold and what to let go, all of which otherwise
happen automatically with your existing technique.
- Double-check the instructions for the method that you will be teaching to ensure that your technique does not
result in an un-balanced
Granny Knot (which comes undone).
- When the child finally succeeds, check the result for the tell-tale "Crooked Bow", indicating that they have
probably done one of the steps in reverse and produced a
Granny Knot (which comes undone).
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Which Knot To Teach
If you're looking for a simple way to teach your kids to tie their shoelaces, forget the huge collection of
Shoelace Knots on this site (which is presented mainly as a scientific and/or historical archive)
and stick with these three basic shoelace knots:
It's important to realise that, if tied correctly, all three methods produce the
identical finished knot! I therefore recommend that you consider trying any (or all) of these methods and
seeing which works best with your child, as different methods can suit different learning styles.
- The "Standard Shoelace Knot" has the most individual steps to memorize and the most opportunities for making
mistakes, and thus is probably the most difficult to teach and learn.
- The "Two Loop Shoelace Knot" is easier because the second stage is so similar to the first stage. However, this is
the main reason that it's often taught and/or learned incorrectly, resulting in a
Granny Knot (which comes undone). It's therefore important to also teach the fact that the second stage should
be done in reverse to the first stage. A second, unrelated problem is that kids will often be teased as they get
older for using this "Kiddie's Knot", despite it being a perfectly good method if done correctly.
- The "Ian Knot" has the fewest steps to memorize and is also less biased towards left or right handedness. Many
occupational therapists have had great success with this knot, which I believe is because it has fewer sequential
steps to memorize and perform. Once they get the starting position correct, the rest just flows fairly smoothly.
This is especially helpful for children with sequencing difficulties.
Please don't compare any of these knots with the one you're currently using (and can do automatically) and make the
mistake of assuming it's too tricky. If you're not willing to learn it yourself, at least let your child try it!
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If you have any useful tips, please
Contact Ian so that they can be shared with others.
This page last updated: 05-Jun-2010. Copyright © 2005-2010 by
Ian W. Fieggen. All rights reserved.
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