Washing Hands

Hand washing must be taught and implemented everywhere; in schools, in the community and of course in our homes. Hand washing has been the best tool to prevent infection, spreading germs and falling sick. We should teach our children to cultivate these habits naturally in their routines from a young age itself.

 

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Here are some basic tips to teach your child to wash their hands independently:

 

1. Show them a video on how to wash their hands. Videos are a great modelling tool. Our child can learn to imitate the steps of washing hands by watching a video of an individual doing so.

 

2. Reading a Social Story about washing hands will help your child in knowing the basic routine on washing hands. (example) 

- These are my hands.

- I use my hands to eat, play and work.

- Sometimes my hands may get dirty. When my hands are dirty I need to wash my hands. 

- First I turn on the tap, next I take some soap, and then I rub the soap on top and under my hands, then I rinse my hands, and finally I dry my hands.

- Hooray my hands are all clean!

 

3. You can also show them a visual on washing hands and you could place it in every sink. Here are some basic examples of visuals that you can use for your child 

a.

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b.

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4. Lastly you could always sing a song while your child washes their hands.

 

Written by:

Jerusha

Supervisor, EAP Malaysia