Brush Teeth & Comb Hair
When two steps must be done in sequence, it is easy to start one, lose track of it and jump to the other. The steps below hold the order so nothing gets dropped along the way.
♀Teeth & comb
A girl brushes her teeth with a toothbrush and holds a comb in her other hand.
♀Teeth & comb
A girl brushes her teeth and holds a comb up to her hair.
♀Teeth & comb
A girl with curly hair brushes her teeth and combs her hair with a comb.
♀Teeth & comb
A girl with braids brushes her teeth and combs her hair with a comb.
About this visual support
Holding two steps together in a set order is harder than it sounds, especially in the morning when the head is not quite awake. The child starts brushing the teeth, gets distracted, puts the brush down and moves on to the comb without the first being finished. Then it is easy to think everything is done, even though half the task was never completed.
The problem is rarely an unwillingness to do it, but keeping track of where in the chain you are. A visual support moves the order out of the head and into the pictures, so the child does not have to remember the sequence alone. When it shows that the teeth come first and the hair after, it becomes clear what is done and what remains.
Let the child mark each finished step before the next begins, for example by turning a picture or moving a marker, so the boundary between the steps becomes concrete. Then it is hard to skip something without noticing. In the Routined app you can build the sequence with check-off so the order holds even on tired mornings.