Bathtime Activity: 3 Years

By this age, your preschooler will love pretending, so give her toys, such as plastic people, animals, and vehicles, to play with in the tub. Ask her questions like, "Where is your boat going?" or "What is the horse doing?" to help encourage the use of her imagination. You may notice that she can come up with quite elaborate stories! Of course, she may just want to play quietly instead, but don't hesitate to narrate as she does (e.g., "I see that your little man is swimming under water. Maybe he's a scuba diver!"). Either way, just follow her lead to help make sure this time is relaxed and fun for her. You can also give her sponges and dense toy blocks to play with, or even a paintbrush to "paint" the tub walls with water. After bathtime, you may notice that she's more interested now in dressing herself. Encourage this, stepping in to help only when necessary.

Possible Intervention Strategies & Supports

• Use hand-over-hand prompting (see image to right) to help your child with "painting" on the walls. You can also draw different shapes and lines for her to copy.

• Practice getting in and out of tub without water in it first. Use verbal cues, especially directional prepositions, such as, "Put your hands on the side of the tub. Now,  put one leg over the side of the tub." etc.

• If your child does not particularly like bathtime, try creating a social story to read to her first.

• Try playing a body awareness game during bathtime to help your child develop her perception of touch. "Draw" a simple recognizable shape (e.g., circle) or picture *e.g., house) on her back with your finger and see if she can guess what it is by how it feels. If this is too hard you can "draw" it on her arm or hand while she watches and then draw it again on her back to help her tune in to this sense.
  
   

Tips

If you don't have a toy boat, you can easily use a plastic bowl or nesting cup as a substitute. This will just add to the fun of pretending! As with all ages, just make sure that anything you put in the tub is not a choking hazard. At this age, ask your child a lot of open-ended questions so that she has to do more to respond than just shaking her head or saying "Yes/No." Setting up these types of opportunities to answer for more in-depth answers will help expand her vocabulary.

Family Handout

Click here to download an editable one-page handout of this age range's bathtime activity, interventions, and tips.