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I am working with students who are learning to either eat by mouth or to feed themselves. This can make for messy mealtimes. When they were younger, the kids typically used bibs. However, I feel like bibs are a bit babyish and make the kids stand out even more than they already do. A solution that was actually mentioned by one of our peer buddies was to use old t-shirts to cover up the kids' clothes. Since I'm married to a coach we have tons (I'm not kidding) of t-shirts. I make my husband down-size every fall before school starts. The t-shirts then go into my collection for school. They work perfectly for cover-ups at meal time as well as for smocks when we do messy art or science projects. They pretty much look like what everyone else is wearing so the kids don't stand out, wash easily, and are a renewable commodity (at least for me) so when they get too stained, torn, or ragged we just toss them. They have the added benefit of allowing us to work on some basic dressing and undressing skills several times a day.Old t-shirts work for me as clothing cover-ups. What works for you?
This is a great idea. I wish I could use something like that, as I am also not a fan of bibs, but I have multiple students that use them. My problem is that the parents send them in and want them to use them, so I have a hard time asking the parents if we can use an alternative. It may be something I want to reconsider, though. How have you approached it with parents? Thanks for the idea!
ReplyDeleteNow that you mention it, I don't think it's ever been an issue with my parents. We've used t-shirt cover ups for 14 years (wow! have I really been here that long?) and I don't think I asked them. We just do it. For parents, at least in my experience, they want their kids to look nice, have clean clothes, and stand out as little as possible. How that's accomplished doesn't seem t matter too much to them. I think I've had parents offer to send bibs once or twice but once I explain about how the t-shirts work and why I prefer them they are more than happy to go with that solution.
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