Dressing Techniques to help maintain Independance

The ability to continue caring for oneself in activities of daily living is important from both a physical and a psychological standpoint.  Here are a few tips to address challenges when dressing for the day!

Choosing and Adapting clothing:

Choose easily washed and no-iron fabrics.  Elastic waistbands are easy to slip on and now they even make elastic shoelaces.  They look the same, but no need to tie and untie! 

Consider the neck opening size when something goes overhead. 

Replace buttons with velcro if needed, you can sew buttons on the outside of the garment so no one knows your secret. This is what we did in designing the Classic bonTop!

Techniques:

There are many tried and true techniques for dressing with a disability.  An Occupational Therapist is trained in these techniques and can assist those with limited strength or mobility to remain as independent as possible with dressing.  They would do an assessment and train their client in these techniques.

Adaptive aids:

There are many adaptive aids to help with dressing.  Some examples follow:

A button aid allows easy buttoning with one hand.

A sock aid allows placement of a sock without bending over to reach the feet.

Pant Clips can be used to lift pants over the hips with one hand.

A dressing stick has hooks of different shapes and angles and can be invaluable for many dressing tasks. 

Again, an Occupational Therapist can assess your individual needs and recommend aides for you to try!