Shoe Tying Visuals Galore! ~ by Kelley

I've been working with the 5th grade students with Autism to develop their shoe tying skills. Many students wear shoes with velcro straps, which works fine in elementary school. Unfortunately, as kids grow out of child sizes and into adult sizes it can be much more difficult to find shoes with velcro fasteners. I've tried to emphasize to parents the importance of their children becoming comfortable with this skill before entering middle school.

The students watched me demonstrate two different methods - the traditional method and the double loop method (what we call rabbit ears). They got to choose which method they wished to practice. So far, the double loop method has proven to be easier for the students.

I'm going to post visuals here that I adapted from the website Ian's Shoelace Site. If you've ever wondered about all the bajillions of ways to lace and tie shoes, that is the website for you!

Feel free to provide these links to students and parents to provide practice opportunities at home. As you can imagine, special ed teachers and therapists have limited time to spend on this at school so the more often they practice at home the more proficient they will become.


Double Loop/Bunny Ears Method (click to download)

Traditional Method (click to download)