Open the gate

#gate#opening#fence#going out

A gate is two things at once: a boundary and an obstacle. It has to be opened with the fingers exactly when the body is already heading out, and it has to be closed again afterwards. The pictures below split the moment so none of the three steps drops away.

A boy opens a wooden gate in a picket fence on a lawn.

♂

Open the gate

A boy opens a wooden gate in a picket fence on a lawn.

About this visual support

The gate sits exactly where the speed is highest. The child is on the way out, the eyes are already on the street or the yard, and precisely then precision is required: find the latch, lift, pull the right way. The last step, closing behind you, often falls entirely outside attention because the body is already on the other side.

Visual support splits up what looks like a single movement. Three pictures give the closing its own place in the sequence instead of leaving it as an afterthought. That matters when the gate exists for a reason, a road outside or an animal in the yard for instance.

A concrete tip is to practise the step on the way in rather than on the way out. At the entrance the pace is slower and patience is greater, and what is learned there carries over to when there is a rush. In Routined out and in can sit as two short steps in the day's routine, and the app can be tried for fourteen days at no cost.