The challenge: You finally bought your child his first pair of shoes with laces, but he can't tie them.
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How you can help: Give him one of your sneakers to practice on since it's bigger and easier to manipulate, says Felice Sklamberg, a pediatric occupational therapist at New York University Medical Center, in New York City. And consider stringing two different-colored laces together so your child can easily distinguish between them as you're explaining what to do.
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"Break the process up into small steps," adds Sklamberg. To explain crisscrossing the laces and pulling one through, tell your child that he's building a tepee and you want him to come inside and close it tight so he can hide. To get the hang of making the bows (which is a little harder), tell him to make one ear for listening (the first bow), then wrap the string around the ear and pull it through to see what he can hear.
