Shoe-Tying Help for Kids with Dyspraxia

Bobby Morong is a special education teacher with 20+ years of classroom experience. He invented Training Ties in his classroom working with students who have dyspraxia, DCD, autism, and other developmental differences. This page reflects what he learned teaching shoe tying to students with motor planning challenges — what works, what doesn't, and why standard instruction so consistently fails this group.

Can children with dyspraxia learn to tie their shoes?

Yes — many children with dyspraxia (Developmental Coordination Disorder) do learn to tie their shoes, though the standard approach almost always fails them first. The reason is straightforward: shoe tying is a motor planning task, and motor planning is precisely where dyspraxia creates difficulty. The standard instruction method assumes motor planning is working. For kids with DCD, it isn't — and that mismatch produces the failure cycle that leads most families to give up on the skill entirely.

Why shoe tying is harder with dyspraxia

Motor planning (praxis) difficulty. Dyspraxia is a disorder of motor planning — the cognitive process of figuring out how to make your body do a new or complex motor task. Shoe tying is a multi-step, bilateral, sequential motor task. The planning demand is high from the very first attempt.

Bilateral coordination. Tying a shoe requires both hands to do different things simultaneously, in precise coordination, while holding tension. The dominant hand executes; the non-dominant hand holds. Swapping roles mid-sequence is required. For children with dyspraxia, who often have bilateral coordination difficulty, this dual-hand demand is a major barrier.

Sequencing under load. The 10-step shoe-tying sequence must be held in working memory while each step is executed. For kids with DCD, who often have difficulty with sequencing and may have co-occurring working memory challenges, this is a significant cognitive load stacked on top of an already difficult motor task.

The failure cycle. Any mistake in standard shoe-tying instruction collapses all prior progress. The lace falls apart. Start over. For a child with dyspraxia who has already spent significant motor-planning effort getting to step 6, that total restart is devastating — and teaches avoidance, not skill.

How the checkpoint method addresses dyspraxia specifically

Training Ties uses a patented checkpoint system that holds lace progress at the two moments where failure is most likely to occur: after the initial knot and after the first loop.

  • Checkpoint 1 locks the first knot — so the child doesn't have to maintain tension on the initial cross while planning and executing the next step. The motor planning load drops because holding and planning are no longer simultaneous demands.
  • Checkpoint 2 holds the first loop stable — so if the bilateral coordination breaks down while forming the second loop, steps 1–4 don't collapse. The restart is partial, not total.
  • Two-color laces reduce the planning load — the child tracks by color rather than by position. Left hand follows the red lace; right hand follows the white. Positional tracking becomes visual rather than proprioceptive-and-cognitive.
  • Practice on real shoes — shoe-tying frames and boards don't generalize to real shoes for kids with DCD. The motor plan learned on a frame isn't the same plan needed on a real sneaker. Training Ties works on the actual shoe, so what's learned in practice transfers to the locker room and the front door.

Practice strategies for children with dyspraxia

For children with DCD, the structure of practice matters as much as the content.

  • Use backward chaining. Do steps 1–9 for your child, then let them complete step 10. Once step 10 is consistent, back up one step. Every session ends with the child finishing the knot — which means every session ends with success, not failure.
  • Use silent demonstration. Show the step without narrating it. Verbal instruction during motor execution creates cognitive interference for kids with DCD. Narrate before or after — not during.
  • Keep sessions short. Five minutes of daily practice beats 40 minutes twice a week. Motor planning consolidates during rest, not during extended practice. Short sessions also prevent the fatigue-driven failures that create the avoidance cycle.
  • Sit beside, not across. Demonstrate from the same side as your child, not from the opposite side. Mirroring a reversed hand model is an additional motor planning demand that kids with DCD don't need.
  • Practice off the foot first. Tying on a table, shoe in lap, removes the proprioceptive demand of bending forward while managing fine motor work. Once the motor plan is consistent off-foot, transition to on-foot tying.
  • Consistent timing and environment. DCD learners benefit from reduced variability in practice conditions. Same time of day, same chair, same shoes. Consistency in the practice context reduces the planning load for each session.

When to involve the OT

If your child receives occupational therapy, shoe tying is an appropriate OT target. Your OT can assess the specific praxis and bilateral coordination factors limiting progress, recommend prerequisite activities, and help determine whether the child is ready for direct shoe-tying instruction or whether more foundational motor planning work would be more efficient first.

Training Ties is used by OTs in pediatric clinics. Your therapist can integrate it into clinic work directly, so practice is reinforced both at home and in therapy. If your child has an IEP, shoe tying can be written as an adaptive behavior goal. See our shoe-tying tools for IEP goals page for sample language.

When permanent no-tie laces are the right call

Not every child with dyspraxia will acquire functional shoe tying — and for some learners, the energy cost of the skill doesn't justify the benefit relative to other independence priorities. Permanent elastic laces (Lock Laces, Hickies) are excellent independence tools for learners who reach a genuine ceiling on conventional lace tying. See our Lock Laces comparison for an honest breakdown of when each solution fits.

Related resources

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Frequently asked questions

Can children with dyspraxia learn to tie their shoes?

Yes — many do, with the right scaffolding. The standard approach fails them because it assumes motor planning is working. Backward chaining, short sessions, silent demonstration, and the checkpoint method address the specific barriers DCD creates.

How is DCD different from just being clumsy?

DCD (Developmental Coordination Disorder) is a recognized neurodevelopmental condition characterized by significant difficulty with motor planning and coordination that isn't explained by intellectual disability, neurological conditions, or vision/hearing problems. "Clumsy" describes the output; DCD explains the mechanism — and that distinction changes how you teach.

What does Training Ties help with specifically for dyspraxia?

It holds lace progress at the two failure points — after the first knot and after the first loop — which reduces the bilateral coordination demand and the cost of motor planning errors. When a mistake at step 6 doesn't erase steps 1–5, the failure cycle breaks and practice becomes sustainable.

Should I use a shoe-tying frame instead?

For children with DCD specifically, shoe-tying frames often don't generalize to real shoes. The motor plan built on a frame is not the same plan needed on a real sneaker with real laces under real foot pressure. Training Ties works on the actual shoe, which is where the skill needs to live.