Download HOUSEHOLD CHORES

HOUSEHOLD CHORES
BUILDING-UP YOUR CHILD FUNCTIONAL SKILLS AND RESPONSIBILITY
Steps for Teaching Your Child to Do Chores
BENEFITS OF DOING CHORES.
 Build basic life skills
Begin at your child’s level.
 It is much easier to start work on his/her interests.
 Start with what your child is capable of.
 Give him a slightly more challenging task to keep your child engaged
and motivated when he achieves.
Communicate clearly.
 Practice developmentalfunctional skills
 Instill Personal Responsibility
& Self-Discipline
 Foster Independence
 Teach Time Management
 Make an explanation short and clear.
 Use positive language.
 Give visual supports, such as organized schedules or charts with
picture icons.
Go slow and be patient.
 Focus on process and problem solving rather than outcomes.
 Break task down to small steps.
 Be creative. Don’t be afraid to modify tasks or give a new one.
Praise effort and acknowledge the benefits.
The main purpose of teaching a
child to do household chores is to
provide opportunities to learn
and practice functional skills and
make a child more independent
with appropriate support from
family.
Focus or rely too much on
outcome and productivity could
lessen the desirable benefits.
 Look at your child contribution. Don’t judge from your expectation.
 Identify what he has achieved and learned.
Reinforce positive response.
 Give verbal praise and acknowledge your child’s work sincerely are very powerful reinforcements.
 Chores can be rewarded by tokens for redeeming a favorite choice of toys or privileges.
 Do not use love for bargaining.
AGE-APPROPRIATE CHORES
2 - 4 year olds
4 - 6 year olds
7-12 year olds
 Help make the bed
 Set table
 Put dishes in the sink
 Make bed
 Clean and organize the cabinets or
storage closet
 Pick up toys and books
 Clean room
 Help wash the car
 Put laundry in laundry basket
 Help preparing food to cook.
 Vacuum the car
 Help feed pets
 Carrying and putting away groceries
 Learn to wash dishes
 Help wipe up messes
 Loading the dishwasher
 Help prepare simple meals
 Dusting
 Sorting laundry by color
 Basic meal planning
 Mop in areas with help.
 Water garden
 Type/write Grocery list
 Self-help skills: Brush teeth, choose
cloths, or use potty
 Feed pet
 Help with shopping
 Set out clothes for the next day
 Clean the bathroom
 Set out backpack, shoes etc.
 Plant flowers, vegetables or plants
 Rake leaves
 Walk the dog
Developmental Benefits of Chores
Tasks
Put laundry in laundry basket
Help wipe up messes
Areas of development


Dusting
Wiping floor

Clean room

Pick up toys and books
Help preparing food to cook


Clean and organize the cabinets or storage closet

Put dishes in the sink
Carrying and putting away groceries
Water garden
Gardening: mowing grass, planting, watering, rake
leaves
Tactile sensory perception
Motor-planning skills
o Eye-hand coordination
o Gross motor coordination
o Direction: Move left & right, up & down
Visual-spatial perception
o Relationship of space to his body
o Related to sense of mobility and direction
Sensory processing
o Gustation (taste) by tasting food
Fine motor movement
Cognitive ability
o Differentiating & matching
o Sorting & Organizing
o Problem-solving skills
 Learn steps
 Goal-oriented effort
Communication
o Vocabulary learning (name, action, etc.)
o Follow simple or multi instructions.




Eye-hand coordination
Gross motor movement
Physical strength
Sensory processing
o Vestibular: Balancing body
o Multi-movement task

Sensory processing
o Tactile
o Olfactory (smell)
o Vestibular: Balancing body
o Proprioception (the sense of knowing one's
position in space)
Fine & gross motor movement
o Handiness


Feed pet
Walk the dog

Psychological
o Bonding with pet
o Sense of belonging
o Be responsible
Communication
o Read gesture, non-verbal clues