Please read this advice together with the dressing skills advice, which explains why children may find dressing difficult, what you may notice and general suggestions.

This advice gives information about helping children with socks and shoes. There is separate advice for tops, trousers and fastenings. If you follow these recommendations and do not see any improvement after six months, you should contact the Children and Young People’s Therapy Service for further support.

 

Socks

Strategies and advice

  • Show your child how to take off and put on socks properly. Encourage them to help you.
    Choose socks with different coloured heels and toes. This will help your child know which part goes where.
  • Use shorter trainer socks. These make it easier for your child to find the heel, as there is less material to pull over.
  • Let your child practise with your loose socks. These are easier for them to handle.
  • Try putting a little talcum powder on the sole of your child’s foot. This helps the sock slide on more easily.
  • Pick cotton socks. These are usually easier for children to manage than nylon socks.
  • Practise putting socks on dolls or soft toys such as teddies.
  • Use backward chaining. This means teaching your child the last step first when learning to put on socks.

Shoes

You may see:

  • The tongue wedged into the toe part of the shoe, causing discomfort and making it more difficult to put on.
  • The heel of the shoe downtrodden at the back where the child has not been able to pull it up over their heel.
  • Shoes on the wrong feet.
  • Velcro straps not pulled tight so the shoe is loose on the foot.
  • Laces left untied or stuffed into the shoe.

Strategies and advice

Taking shoes off

Start with teaching your child to undo their shoes before taking them off. Sit behind the child and demonstrate how to take off their shoes by undoing the fastenings, pulling the shoe open to loosen it and pulling the shoe off with the hand under the heel.

Repeat the task but allow your child to do the last step to pull the shoe off.

Continue practising the task in the same way and, as your child progresses, allow them to do more of the task. For example to pull open the shoe and then pull it off the foot.

Allow them to practise taking off your shoes for you or shoes off their toys.

Encourage your child to assist with fastenings.

Putting on shoes

This can be a bit trickier. Start with putting on larger or looser shoes. Dressing-up games are a good time to practise this. Allow your child to practise with your shoes.

Open-back or slip-on shoes are easier to start with.

Teach your child one of two methods according to their ability.

  1. Left foot over right knee and put shoe on and vice versa.
  2. Place the shoe on the floor and let the child wriggle their foot into the shoe.

If your child needs extra support, allow them to sit on the bottom step, against a wall or in the corner of a sofa.

Always do the task in the same order so it is easier to remember which bit comes next. For example, loosen fastenings, pull shoe open, pull out tongue of shoe, wriggle in foot, readjust tongue and fasten.

Initially you may need to position the correct shoe by the correct foot. If your child has difficulty putting each shoe on the correct foot you can:

  • Fix something bright onto one shoe and teach your child ‘bright is right’.
  • Buy shoes with a logo on the outer side.
  • Hold shoes next to each other before putting them on to see if they are ‘friends’ and they ‘face’ each other.
  • Place shoes in front of your child in their correct position, so that the left shoe is matching the left foot.
  • Help your child recognise their left and right shoe by drawing arrows inside the shoes pointing together.
  • Cut a large sticker in half and place on the inside of each shoe. Encourage your child to match the sticker.

 

 

Last reviewed October 2025