If getting dressed has become one of the hardest parts of your morning — for both your child and you — sensory differences are often part of the picture. This 30-minute course shares five practical sensory strategies to help your child feel more comfortable with getting dressed, in small steps that work for your family.
Getting dressed asks more of a child than it might appear. There's the texture of fabrics on skin, seams and labels, the temperature of clothes pulled fresh from a drawer, balancing while putting on socks or trousers, coordinating both arms into sleeves, and planning the order of each garment — all while often being asked to do it quickly because the school bus is coming. For some children, that combination is genuinely a lot.
In this course, Occupational Therapist Jessica Kirton shares five evidence-based sensory strategies to support children up to age 10 with getting dressed. None of the strategies require special equipment, and most can be introduced gradually — at calmer moments first, before working them into the daily routine.
Each strategy is paired with the underlying sensory principle in plain language, so you'll understand why it might help — and feel confident adapting it to suit your child. The aim isn't to push your child to "get on with it" faster; it's to gently build the conditions for dressing to feel less overwhelming, so the morning doesn't have to be a battle.
Across the course, Jessica covers:
This course is designed for parents and carers of children up to age 10 who find getting dressed tricky — whether your child has a diagnosis (autism, ADHD, dyspraxia, sensory processing differences) or no formal diagnosis at all.
If mornings have become a real flashpoint in your family, please know — many sensory-different children find dressing genuinely hard, and the morning rush makes everything harder. Practising at calmer moments, like at the weekend or in the evening, often works better than trying new strategies for the first time at 8am.
📥 Course notes & glossary are downloadable and yours to keep.
📄 Certificate of Attendance available once you've completed the short check at the end.
🕒 Take your time — try one strategy at a calmer moment first before bringing it into the morning routine. Any small step toward calmer dressing is genuine progress.
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How to use this course
Meet the course leader, Jess Kirton
Welcome
Who this course is most useful for, and what we are going to cover
What this course does not cover and why
How to use massage as a sensory calmer
What to do, and some alternative ideas to massage
Why massage works in this situation
Wrapping and Swaddling - a new spin on a very ancient practice
Wrapping and Swaddling-How to do it?
What equipment to use for wrapping and swaddling
When not to use this strategy
Why wrapping and swaddling works in this situation
How to use push and pull strategies to help with dressing
Ideas for Pushing and Pulling activities and some alternatives that might suit your child even better
When not to use this strategy
Theory Underpinning Pulling and Pushing Activities
Sitting to dress - an effective strategy to reduce the challenge of balance and coordination
How to use this strategy supportively
Why sitting to dress helps when dressing is stressful
easy to understand great tips and helpful information through out the course
easy to understand great tips and helpful information through out the course
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