5 Adaptations for Tying Shoes

Tying shoes is a complex skill to learn requiring fine motor skills, visual perceptual skills and motor planning.  Some children may need extra help to learn how to tie shoes and some may need permanent adaptations.  Here are 5 suggestions to adapt shoe tying:

1. commercial shoe laces that are different colors to help learn shoe tying http://www.loopeez.com/index.php
2. Velcro hidden inside shoe http://pinterest.com/pin/143693044332911985/
3. commercial products that use elastic shoelaces http://www.locklaces.com/
4. elastic shoe laces - once tied shoe slips on and off
5. commercial Velcro shoes or slip on shoes

What is your favorite idea to adapt shoe tying or to teach tying shoes?

Accommodation for Shoe Tying?

I came across a young soccer player wearing this on her indoor soccer sneakers this past weekend. This was a new product to me but I thought it was worth a mention although I have not personally used these. It is worn over the laces to make sure the sneakers stay tied during the game. To me, this seems like the perfect accommodation for a child who just can not tie his/her shoes. Rather than being limited by velcro sneakers, perhaps give this "SweetSpot" a try. They come in many colors (could use school colors or team colors). It is really just a piece of looped heavy duty resistive band. They are latex free.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Another benefit would be for eye foot coordination training. When teaching a young child to drop kick a ball the colorful marking provides a good visual target.

Has anyone used these in their practice? Would love to hear if anyone has had any success with using them as an accommodation.
You can get them at Amazon.

1/22/12 - Follow Up: I stopped into the soccer store so I could buy the Sweet Spot but he was sold out. He stated there are several brands one being Adidas. I found these online as another alternative. I did wonder though could you sew velcro strips onto thick elastic and achieve the same thing? May have to try a sewing project. That way you could create different sizes.