Age for Getting Dressed Your Self and Brushing Your Teeth

My son is 3... brushes his teeth with supervision and can completely undress himself. To get himself dressed, he can do undies, pull-on pants, socks and ususally shoes. He needs help with his shirt, but we're getting there!

They are working on this at his preschool too with the whole class.

My little guy will be 2.5 in a couple of weeks. He brushes his teeth by himself, I then go over them and brush them again, and will likely keep helping him for some time, say until he's in first grade or so since brushing his teeth is important to his health.

He wants to dress himself so I give him his shirt, pants, socks and sandals or shoes and he does a pretty good job, needs help pulling the elastic waist shorts and pants up over his bottom sometimes, or re-positioning his socks, etc., but he can do it pretty much on his own. He even pulls his hoodie on, lol : ) Looks like he's on track to be doing it all on his own in the next 6 months or so.

She should be able to dress on her own by now (though shoes might end up on the wrong feet and she might need a little assistance with socks and buttons). Do not do these things for her...show her how. Even if it takes longer or she gets frustrated.

Brushing teeth should be mostly her, with you doing checks and showing her where to brush what she's missed. Brushing your teeth in front of her while she brushes is a big help. Be sure that she can see the mirror.

I think every kid is different. My daughter (turned 4 last month) can dress herself for the most part (still needs help with socks, shoes, and things with buttons and zippers) but takes a while to do it (if she would let me help her it would go a lot faster but she insists on doing it herself!). She can do some teeth brushing herself but I still follow-up and do the bulk of the job because I am a stickler about dental care and I know she is not doing an adequate job on her own yet.

I would use the weekend mornings, when you are not in a rush, to get her to start doing some of these things for herself - practice makes perfect. Let her struggle a bit and get frustrated until she figures it out with minimal guidance from you. But if you are in that much of a hurry in the morning, it might still be faster for you to do it than her until she gets the hang of it. Your friend of a friend with triplets may have different expectations for her kids simply because she can't spend as much time catering to each ones needs and they have no choice but to do things for themselves more. They probably don't have to get ready in an hour to be out the door at 6 am most days either.

She can probably do all of that herself by now, she probably just needs encouragement to do so.

My 4 yr old has been dressing himself for awhile. He brushes his teeth and then I check them and brush where he has missed. She is too young to do a good job brushing so you should continue helping her with that but she should be able to dress herself.

Yes, she should be able to dress herself. My daughter is 5 1/2 and has been dressing herself since around age 3 to 4. She brushes her teeth on her own now, but I'm not sure how old she was when she started doing that on her own.

My daughter turns three next week and she dresses herself. My son has been dressing himself for quite a while, I think he started around the age of three. They may need help with a snap or a button, but other than that they are pretty independent.

As for brushing teeth, that's a bit trickier. My kids both think that they can do it themselves. My BIL is our dentist. He says that most kids are not able to properly brush their teeth on their own until the age of 7. Apparently it has to do with dexterity and completely understanding how to properly brush. Seven seemed old to me, but my SIL said her dentist told her 8 or 9. So with my five year old, he does it with supervision. I watch and remind him where to brush in the mornings, often stepping in when needed. Before bed I floss and usually brush a second time to make sure we get all the "germies".

My dentist recommends that we brush my daughter's teeth until she's about 6. We let her brush first and then I go over them really quickly a second time.
At about 3.5 most kids can get dressed by themselves in most outfits. My daughter is almost 4 and only needs help with difficult/tight clothing like tights and long dresses. I put out her clothes and let he choose some items as well.

I find with all skills I tend to baby my only child way longer than necessary and I am often surprised by what she can already do, that I have been doing for her - if I just let her.

By 6 am? YIKES!!

My 3 year old can dress himself. Probably started at 2 1/2.

He was also brushing his teeth probably by 2 1/2, but the dentist said that we need to brush his teeth also until he's at least 8. She said when they master cursive writing, but many schools no longer teach that.

My four and six yo have been dressing themselves for at least 1-2 years now. They just decided themselves that they wanted to. My girl loves being able to decide what she will wear - she began this at 3 - she couldnt reach the hangars in her closet so we would pick out what she wanted the night before and set it out for the morning. Now she gets up and gets dressed before coming down stairs. My son, 6, gets up pretty early so I told him that he could help me out by getting dressed and he has done it ever since. He comes up with some funny combinations sometimes (sweatshirt with shorts, ha ha ha) but if he comes down looking strange, I just ask him to go change and he does.
We are currently working on brushing hair - with both, I still have to do it - they just don't seem coordinated enough to do it and still look normal!
Teethbrushing, they can do themselves but sometimes they forget and I have to remind them that they need to go back up to do it.
I think now is a great time to try 1 thing - the easiest is clothes so start with that - give it a few months and once they have it down, add toothbrushing - it may take a while but they will get it.

Good luck!

My 3.5 y/o likes to dress himself, most days. I do help with brushing his teeth.
My 7 y/o is on his own. He was 4+ before I started pushing him to dress himself. He'd still let me help him get dressed and ready if I was willing!

Our daughter has been capable of dressing herself for a while now (she's 4.5yo), but it takes her sooooo loooonnnggg. At her preschool, she's been doing it herself probably since she was 3. Our biggest struggle is picking out clothes. She's very particular. You could pick out her clothes (with her input) the night before and set them out for her.

Brushing teeth by herself will probably be a while. But, our dentist suggested we brush our 4yo's teeth at night and let her do it by herself in the morning. You could try the same thing.

I have a just turned five year old and she still wants me to dress her. I would try giving her a small treat everytime she trys her best to get dressed. Or take some time to teach her how to do it and sing a song, like (this is the way we dress ourselves,dress are selfs,dress are selfs) and remember ever kid is different.

My six year old has been dressing himself since about four. I would just lay out what she will wear out for her and let her brush her own teeth. Our dentist suggested letting our children brush their own teeth in the morning but during a more thorough job in the evening.

I am sure your daughter could dress herself too - but getting up at 5:00 probably kills that for her...that is really early - she is probably too tired at that time to process. I understand you can't change your schedule, but my 2 and 6 year olds get 12 hours at night and the younger one naps - I don't imagine your daughter is in bed by 5:00...

I dress my daughter, 3 and a half, otherwise it would be an extra hour, she can dress herself for the most part though.
She can brush her teeth, but not thoroughly, so I let her do it, then I have a turn!