Tips for Making Your Kiddo More Self-Sufficient

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Have high, yet realistic expectations – One should make sure to challenge your child to do only things you know they
are currently capable of doing. If your child has fine motor delays it would be unreasonable to instruct them to tie their shoes without any prior training. Instead try starting smaller by having them put both shoes on by themselves.
Set reachable goals – The goals can be either short-term (Taking off shoes independently) or long-term goals (Dressing themselves independently)
Start small – If your child is not able to manipulate buttons appropriately, start working on building their fine motor skills and hand strength. Then eventually return to working on using buttons.
Don’t help your child do everything – When you are in a hurry it is common for a parent to do everything for their child to speed up the process, but this is not truly helping them acquire necessary skills. If your child is capable of doing a task, provide them with as many opportunities as you can to have them practice that skill.
Start teaching skills ASAP – Don’t wait to start teaching your kiddo adaptive skills. Reference typically developmental milestones to check at what age children learn to do certain skills. Even children that are as young as 2 can start assisting getting themselves dressed, cleaning, and other independent living skills.
Do not give in to behaviors that they may possibly be engaging in due to the challenging tasks – If a certain task is difficult for your child, you can assume they will engage in some negative behaviors in attempt to escape the task. In these cases, you should ignore the challenging behaviors while still making sure that they complete the task instead of escaping it.
Reinforce exhibited independent skills – When you witness your child partaking in independent behaviors, reinforce them! By reinforcing them in these moments, these behaviors are more likely to take place again in the future!