Made2Motivate Therapy Supplies
Dressing Skills Kit – Zips, Laces & Buttons
Dressing Skills Kit – Zips, Laces & Buttons
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Three fasteners, one kit. Zips, laces and buttons — the dressing skills a child needs to get themselves ready in the morning, graded in the order an occupational therapist would teach them.
Most dressing practice at home happens under time pressure, on a real garment, while everyone is trying to get out of the door. This kit takes the fastener off the child and puts it on the table, where it can be worked on slowly, at eye level, without the morning attached to it.
It also includes Getting Dressed, a 13-page guide written by an occupational therapist for the person doing the teaching — a milestone table, backward chaining, a section for each fastener, and a progress chart.
Warning: contains small parts. Not for children under 3.
Highlights & Tips
- Graded from easiest to hardest - felt button, thread card, laces, then the zip - so you can start where your child actually is
- Practice on the table, not on the body. A child can see what their hands are doing, which is half the battle
- Let them do the last step. Push the button most of the way through and let them pull it out - the success at the end is what brings them back tomorrow
- Two minutes a day beats one long session, and never on a school morning
- Each side of the zipper trainer is a different colour - name the colours rather than saying left and right, and joining the zip at the bottom becomes far easier
- Sit beside the child rather than opposite them. Facing a child means they have to mentally flip everything you show them
- Includes a 13-page parent guide written by an occupational therapist, with household activities and a dressing milestone chart
Product Details
- Material
- Wooden lacing shoe, button thread cards and felt button board; polyester zipper trainer with nickel-coated aluminium snaps, PVC zip and buckle.
- Age Recommendation
- 3 years and over, with adult supervision
- Warranty
- 1 year warranty from date of delivery, covering manufacturing faults. This does not affect your statutory rights under UAE consumer protection law.
What's Included
- Blast Off! Zipper Trainer - buckles, snaps, hook-and-loop and a full-length zip, each side a different colour
- Wooden Lacing Shoes Set - real eyelets and laces, worked off the foot
- Button Thread Card - threading a cord in one hole and out the next
- Large Single Button - two large size button, the easiest starting point
- Felt Button Practice - two medium size felt button loop, after mastering the large button
- Getting Dressed parent guide - 13 pages, written by an occupational therapist. Milestone table, backward chaining method, household warm-ups, a section per fastener, an easier/harder grid and a progress chart. Worth AED 49, included free.
Recommended For
- Children working towards dressing independence
- Occupational therapy sessions and home programmes
- Life skills and self-care teaching
- Classroom fine motor stations
- Children who find fasteners frustrating on real clothes
Shipping & Delivery
- UAE-wide delivery: We ship to all Emirates across the UAE.
- Delivery time: Most orders are delivered within 2–3 business days.
- Shipping fee: AED 35 for orders under AED 250.
- Free shipping: Enjoy free delivery on orders of AED 250 or more.
- Bulky products: Bulky products or larger orders may require additional delivery time. If this applies to your order, we will contact you with the expected delivery timeframe.
Safety Guidelines
WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD. Contains small parts and cords. Not suitable for children under 3 years.
Adult supervision at all times. Laces and cords can present a strangulation risk - put the kit away after use and never leave a child unsupervised with it.
Check wooden pieces for splinters or splits before each use and withdraw anything damaged.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which piece should we start with?
Start below where you think the child is, not at it. The felt button board is the easiest - one large button, soft fabric, nothing to line up. The button thread card comes next: threading a cord in one hole and out the next, which builds the steady pinch and the two-handed control every fastener needs. Then the lacing shoe, which is the same threading skill on a harder shape, with tying on the end of it. The zipper trainer is last, because a zip has to be joined at the bottom before it will run, and that step defeats more children than the pulling does.
Starting one step too easy costs you a week. Starting one step too hard can cost you the child's willingness to try at all. The guide walks through this in more detail, with a milestone table to check against.
Why not just practise on real clothes?
Because of where the garment sits. On the body, a fastener is upside down, close to the face and partly out of sight, and the child is usually being hurried. On the table it is the right way up, at eye level, and they can watch their own hands. That is a much easier version of the same skill, and it is where the learning happens fastest.
Real clothes are still the goal, and the move onto the body should happen as soon as the child can manage the tabletop version. Do it at a calm time - after school, or getting changed for the pool - not on a school morning.
My child is six and still cannot do buttons. Should I be worried?
Fasteners come in late and they come in unevenly. Large buttons are usually managed somewhere around four to five, small ones later; laces commonly do not come together until six or seven, and plenty of children are older than that. A child can be well ahead in every other area and still be defeated by a shirt cuff.
What is worth looking at is not the age but the pattern - whether the child is making progress at all, whether both hands are working together, and whether dressing is the only thing that is hard or one of several. The kit includes a dressing milestone chart so you can see where things sit. If you are concerned, speak to an occupational therapist rather than waiting it out.
Is it suitable for a classroom or a clinic caseload?
Yes. It works well as a fine motor station, and because the set is graded from the felt button up to the zip, one kit covers children at quite different stages - useful for a caseload or a mixed-ability class rather than a single child.
Wipe the wooden and felt pieces between children, and check the laces and cords are accounted for before the kit is put away. If you want extra button thread cards so several children can work at once, they are sold separately and are inexpensive. For more than one room, contact us for school and clinic pricing.
Do you deliver across the UAE?
Yes. We deliver to all seven emirates. Most orders arrive within 2–3 business days. Shipping is AED 35 on orders under AED 250 and free on orders of AED 250 or more. Bulky items may take longer, and we will contact you with a timeframe if that applies.
