Put on rain jacket

#rain jacket#rain#outerwear#getting dressed#outdoors

Stiff fabric that rustles with every movement, and no visible reason to put it on. A rain jacket becomes easier to accept when the pictures below show the weather first and the garments after, in the order they go on.

A boy closes his yellow raincoat as raindrops fall around him.

♂

Boy putting on a yellow rain jacket

A boy closes his yellow raincoat as raindrops fall around him.

About this visual support

The rustling starts in the hallway. A rain jacket is stiff, it makes noise with every movement and it sits differently against the arms than a soft jumper. Add that it goes on while the sky still looks dry, and the resistance makes sense: your child is being asked to trust a forecast they cannot see.

So it works better to begin with the weather than with the garment. Put a picture of clouds or rain first, then the jacket, the trousers and the boots. The link becomes visible, and the decision sits with the sky rather than with you. One trick that helps with rain jackets in particular is to let your child pull the zip up last, once both sleeves are settled, so the tight feeling across the chest arrives after everything else is in place. Many children also need a moment to touch the fabric before dressing, rather than having the jacket arrive from behind mid-thought.

With the Routined app you can put the whole hallway routine together with pictures and check-off, and try it for fourteen days at no cost.