Taking care of your appearance
Overview
This lesson promotes the development of daily living skills that support personal hygiene practices, self-care, and grooming which are essential for health and social development opportunities.
Foundation Knowledge for this lesson includes differentiation of male and female bodies; awareness of body parts; understanding of private and public behaviours and body parts; understanding of the concepts clean vs dirty, fresh smelling vs smelly, and tidy vs messy.
Generalisation ideas
- Sorting: groomed vs not groomed images – these could be images from magazines, the internet, etc.
- Sequencing: creating customised sequences for getting ready to go out using photos of your student/client/child.
- Self-Checking: encouraging a last minute mirror-check before leaving home to make sure buttons are done up, zips are up, hair is tidy, and clothes are clean.
- Extend personal hygiene routines to include body parts to wash in the shower, how to wash your face properly, how to tidy dirty clothing, how to brush your teeth, how to get a haircut, etc.
- Role play: act out sequences.
- Sensory play: collect a ‘beauty box’ or ‘grooming box’ of products for experimenting with scents (deodorants, shampoo, soaps), tastes (toothpaste, mouthwash), and textures (brushes, combs, towels). Work on incorporating preferences into daily routines.
- Consequences: how do other people react to you when you take care of your appearance? How do you feel about yourself when you look your best?
- Flipside: how do people react if someone near them smells? How do you feel about saying hello to someone who doesn’t take care of how they look? What happens if you don’t wash your hair? What happens if you don’t brush your teeth? What happens if you don’t wash your body?
- Getting more information: who can you talk to about anything to do with taking care of how you look?