Q 38)
“We’ve always taken the line of least inconvenience regarding his attire, never asking him to wear anything that wasn’t very comfortable and easy to put on.
Like pants. If Ned has a pair of regular, zipper-up-the-front, belt-around-the-waist long pants, I’ve never seen them. Since getting out of diapers, he’s almost always worn sweatpants in cool weather and shorts in the summer…I don’t think he even owns a belt. Although he has some shirts that button up the front…his top choice daily is either a tee shirt, if it’s warm, or a sweatshirt, if it’s not. Thanks to the miracle of Velcro he’s never had to tie a shoe in his life and so has never learned how…
Ned isn’t the only one among his friends whose parents wrap their kids in sweatpants and slip-ons. When you’ve got only so much time and energy to teach a child to read, write, count, and make it to the bathroom in time, why take some of it to teach him how to button a regular shirt when he never wears one in the first place? How much easier to just button that shirt for him on the four occasions a year …when he has to wear it?” pp. 236-237
Does your loved one tie shoes or button shirts/pants? I saw a recent conversation where parents were complaining about the “special ed uniform” of sweatpants and t-shirts that they felt were terrible symbols of difference. Do you feel that way? Are elastic and Velcro just easier, or are they important ways to provide independence?
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