Braid your hair
Splitting hair into three even strands and crossing them over and over is tricky for the fingers, and each pass tugs a little at the scalp. Pictures showing the grips in order make it easier to follow along. Follow the steps below.
Braid hair
Smiling person with a braid in their hair
About this visual support
Braiding makes high demands on the fingers. The hair has to be split into three equal strands, and then exactly the right strand crossed over the middle again and again, without the grip slipping. For a child working on fine motor skills it's a puzzle where it's easy to lose the thread, and meanwhile it tugs gently at the scalp each time, which puts patience to the test.
Visual support breaks the movement into parts you can see and copy. When the pictures show split into three, right strand over the middle, left strand over the middle, the abstract crossing pattern becomes a clear turn order. The child can follow one picture at a time instead of holding the whole braid in their head, and can practise braiding on a doll or on you before their own hair is up next.
A concrete tip is to mark the strand to move next, for instance with a small clip, so it's always clear which one is in play. It then stops being about remembering the order and becomes simply moving the right strand.
To practise the same sequence of grips regularly, you can save the braiding steps in the Routined app and pull them up every morning you do the hair.