When I became a parent, I was surprised by some of the things that I had to explicitly teach my kids. I knew we’d need to teach them to tie their shoes and ride a bike. But it never occurred to me that I would need to teach them how to blow their nose!
The Trip Clip’s personal care checklists can be useful to young kids, special needs kids, and even teenagers who will benefit from an occasional hygiene reminder!
The Trip Clip has some free checklists you can download right now.
You can also use the website to make your own personal care checklists.
Little Kids
When I first launched this activity on The Trip Clip website many years ago, it was focused just on potty training. That’s still a very common usage for the Personal Care activity, since potty training is stressful and difficult and the kids going through it can’t read yet and find the picture list really helpful!
Another helpful picture list for young kids is a handwashing checklist. You can print this and hang it next to the sink to remind them how to wash thoroughly and long enough.
Teens
Although most teens are past the point where you’d think about using a picture list with them, I had a number of parents email me asking me to add a picture of deodorant for the picture checklists. Some of them wanted to use it on the packing list to make sure their kids remembered to bring it when traveling, or to keep it in their sports bag, but others wanted to create a checklist for older kids with reminders to use deodorant, brush teeth, and comb hair – all things early teens tend to forget to do. These parents found that although their kids didn’t really need a picture checklist, taping a list to the bathroom mirror eliminated the need for anyone to have to talk about these hygiene tasks but the reminder was still there.
Special Needs
I’ve also discovered The Trip Clip’s picture checklist format makes a great visual schedule, which is a handy way to help teach skills to special needs kids. Being able to break down a complicated task into its individual steps is super helpful for kids with ASD, ADHD, or other special needs.
The instructions for how to brush your teeth can be used to teach this skill to a young child, or as a reminder so they continue to remember to do all of the steps.
For special needs kids, you may want to upload your own pictures to show them their actual toothbrush, toothpaste, and timer instead of these clipart images
It turns out learning to blow your nose can be kind of tricky! These written steps with pictures can help a child with special needs learn and remember all the steps.
All Kids
Below are a few more examples of personal care checklists that may be helpful for all kids
The steps for getting dressed can be a useful list to have on the wall of your child’s room. Here’s a shout-out to any parent who has sent their kid off to get dressed only to discover them 15 minutes later half naked playing in their room. For these kids, the list can just serve as a reminder for “what’s next” and help keep them on track.
I also included a checklist for going to the doctor, since this is an important part of personal care and something that can cause a lot of anxiety for all kids. The picture checklist can help them know what to expect, which can help keep the anxiety to a minimum.
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