How to Teach Zipping Skills

Many children with or without disabilities find connecting a zipper to be tricky! This video demonstrates a few fun adaptations that develop the bilateral coordination to open and close zippers. It usually helps to attach something like a pipe cleaner or toy to the zipper slider so that it is easier to grasp while pulling.
When I teach hand skills to children or adults with disabilities, I always make sure there is a lot of REPETITION. The young man in the video is learning how to zip his own jacket for the first time in his life because he practiced attaching 5 zipper sliders every day for several months. A different client loves to insert objects into containers so I created a task where he needed to close the zippers before inserting them. I put a motorized toothbrush and some bells inside the container to add some sensory stimulation. Let me repeat…..repetition and adding some sensory stimulation help motivate my clients to engage in some challenging hand activities.