When do they start dressing themselves?

[khkh8509]

DS 2.1 has suddenly taken an interest in dressing himself. In terms of that, it's more taking off and putting on shoes and socks, the same with his coat. However, he cannot do it for the life of him and he gets so annoyed and frustrated that he ends up throwing the item of clothing and then crying. After he calms down he'll then go back to it to have another go.

I try to positively encourage him verbally with things like "wow, you're doing really well" and I'll show him where to hold things in order to get them on properly without actually taking over and doing it for him (although it's so tempting sometimes).

I know he's still very young, but just watching him get so annoyed over something he can't do isn't really pleasant. When will he start getting the hang of dressing himself? Do I just leave him to figure it out himself when he gets annoyed or should I divert his attention onto something else?

This isn't an every day thing when he needs to be dressed to go out somewhere - I obviously do that myself for him. It's just when we're home and he's playing.

I think what you are doing is just fine, show him the best way of doing it - if he'll let you, if not, let him get on with it. There's nothing wrong with him getting frustrated, it's part of learning. He will give up when he's ready if he can't do it, don't distract him - it's good to learn to persever - but it's best you go out of the room to save your sanity!!

They all do it at different ages - as an example I used to look after a little girl who had just turned 2 who was able to get herself dressed completely, other than the odd tricky button, yet my friends 7 year old still faffs and faddles and would much rather you did it for her (not on my watch young lady ).

I agree with chippingin... generally children can dress themselves except for tricky fastenings at around age 3 but it varies.
You sound like you are teaching him well and frustration tolerance is all part of his learning. Maybe try distraction e.g. talk about what you're going to do outside when he's putting on his boots ?

My 4.5 yr old seems to really really struggle with getting dressed. She will often fall over in the process and begs for help constantly. It's very annoying, but I think she is trying, just has appalling co-ordination.