Wipe surfaces
Most kids stop halfway through wiping surfaces – a quick pass over the table and counter counts as finished. The question what even counts as a surface only becomes clear when someone shows it. The visual support below answers that question.
♂Wipe surfaces
A person wipes a green tabletop with a blue cloth, with motion lines.
♂Wipe surfaces
A person wipes a green counter with a blue cloth.
♀Wipe surfaces
A person wipes a kitchen counter with a yellow sponge beside the tap and a spray bottle.
♀Wipe surfaces
A person wipes a blue tabletop with a yellow sponge and suds.
Wipe the bench
Two hands wipe a wooden bench with a blue sponge.
About this visual support
Wiping surfaces is one of those chores where executive function does most of the work. Which surface comes next, where does the counter end and the windowsill begin, and how do you know a surface is wiped and not just damp? Without a plan the result is often crumbs being shuffled from one spot to another.
The visual support fixes that by naming the surfaces one by one: table, kitchen island, counter around the sink, windowsill, top of the microwave. Once a child can point to the surface that is next, the negotiation about what counts disappears. It also turns the eyes upward – plenty of children forget there is a world above eye level.
A tip that actually sticks: ask the child to say done out loud after each surface and point at it. Strangely it is harder to claim you are finished right after saying the opposite. To tie a whole cleaning round together, you can drop the steps into Routined as a Saturday routine, so the full lap gets its own slot in the day.
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A man sprays cleaning solution on a window and uses a squeegee to clean it.
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A person wiping a cabinet with a yellow cloth.
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A person stands on a stool and wipes a cupboard with a cloth.
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