Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), also known as dyspraxia, affects how the brain plans and coordinates physical movements. For many children with DCD, getting dressed is not just challenging. It is genuinely hard work, requiring more concentration, effort and time than it appears to demand.
If your child struggles with buttons, laces, or simply remembering which way round a jumper goes, you are not dealing with carelessness. You are dealing with a coordination difference that affects how their brain and body work together.
Why Getting Dressed Is Hard with DCD
Dressing involves a surprising number of skills working simultaneously: body awareness, sequencing, fine motor control, bilateral coordination and spatial reasoning. For a child with DCD, any or all of these may require significantly more effort than for a neurotypical child.
Common dressing challenges with DCD include:
- Buttons and zips — require precise fine motor control that DCD directly affects
- Laces — demand bilateral coordination and sequential memory
- Knowing which way round clothes go — spatial reasoning challenges make front/back and inside/out genuinely confusing
- Pulling clothes over the head — requires coordinating both arms while managing restricted vision
- Socks and shoes — consistently the hardest part of getting dressed for many children with DCD
Clothing Choices That Make a Real Difference
Eliminate fastenings where possible. No buttons, no zips, no laces — pull-on styles reduce the dressing task to a manageable sequence without the fine motor demands. Elasticated waistbands, stretchy fabrics and wide neck openings all help.
Choose clothing that is clearly directional. A printed design on the front, a label that always sits at the back, or side seams give consistent visual cues about orientation. It removes one decision from a process that already demands a lot.
Consider softness and fit. Many children with DCD also have sensory sensitivities, and struggling with a scratchy or uncomfortable fabric on top of the physical demands of dressing compounds the difficulty. Soft, non-irritating fabrics reduce the overall load.
Give more time. Dressing genuinely takes longer when it requires concentrated effort, and building extra time into the morning routine removes the additional pressure of rushing — which makes everything harder.
Building Independence
The goal for most families is for their child to dress themselves. With DCD, this takes longer to achieve — but it is achievable, particularly when clothing is chosen to support independence rather than demand skills the child is still developing.
Ask your GP for a referral to an occupational therapist — an OT can assess your child’s specific motor and sensory profile and suggest practical strategies for dressing and daily life.
For more information, the Dyspraxia Foundation’s Children & Families section has practical resources and support — the charity has closed but the website is maintained as a resource. Movement Matters UK also has detailed information on DCD, including resources for parents and schools.
For families also managing sensory sensitivities alongside DCD, our guide to SPD and sensory-friendly clothing is worth reading alongside this.
