Body and hair

#body#hair#washing#hygiene#shower

In the shower nothing marks what has already been washed, and because lather looks the same everywhere, hair and body blur into one long job. The steps below split the wash into an order a child can follow with their eyes.

A boy in a blue T-shirt points one hand at his hair and the other at his body.

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Boy pointing to hair and body

A boy in a blue T-shirt points one hand at his hair and the other at his body.

About this visual support

Water, steam and lather turn the shower into a place that keeps no record. What has been washed looks exactly like what has not, and once the shampoo has run down over the shoulders it is hard to recall whether the hair came before or after the body. The usual result is that one arm gets washed three times while the back never gets a turn.

A row of pictures works as a map of the body. Hair first, then face, arms, tummy, back, legs and feet, in an order that follows the water downwards so the shampoo rinses away on the way. Put the cards in a plastic sleeve on the tiles at the child's eye level rather than above the shower head, so they can be checked without water in the eyes. For children with ADHD that external reminder can be the difference between a shower that gets finished and one that ends when the interest does.

You can set the same order up digitally in Routined, with a fourteen-day trial at no cost.