GM.B.83 BACKS, OR SLIDES SIDEWAYS, INTO A SMALL CHAIR

This is a very functional skill necessary for independence at meal-times and for lots of activities at playgroup, preschool and so on.

How to Assess

Materials: A child’s chair, without arms.

Method: Stand your child facing the chair or beside the chair. Ask her to sit down. Score plus if your child sits in the chair unassisted, either by backing in or by sliding sideways onto it.

How to Teach

Give your practice more meaning by having a table close to the chair that you wish your child to sit on. By this stage she may be climbing on furniture to sit next to you, and will be used to bending one knee up onto a surface that she wishes to climb on to. If not, encourage this first: while sitting on the lounge, with her standing facing you, help her to bend one knee up onto the lounge and swivel around to sit next to you. This is often the first way a child will climb onto a chair but she will have to be far more accurate on a child-size chair as the sitting surface is much smaller.

Place the chair against a wall when the child is first learning to sit, so it doesn’t tip over backward.

If the chair is slightly too large for her, place a small footstool in front of the chair then show her how she can place one foot on this, then push back into the chair. A small table placed at all angle next to the chair will give her some extra support.

Help the child learn to approach from the side of the chair by standing with her back to the side of the chair. She places one hand on the table, one on the seat of the chair. She then sits, and rotates herself to face forward on the chair.

She should be encouraged to seat herself whenever the occasion arises; don’t be tempted to lift her into the chair for the sake of saving time.