Did you have trouble tying shoelaces as a child?

Post Reply New Topic

I didn't learn how to tie my shoes till I was about nine and a half years old.

I recall that my preschool class had a lesson about tying our shoes one day...and it seemed like everyone else got it but me...I was feeling discouraged, and didn't want anyone to see that I couldn't manage something that came so easily to all the other kids there, so I didn't bother asking a teacher for help or anything. That's actually a form of passivity that has followed me into young adulthood.

When I was in elementary school, I would always have to ask one of the teachers to tie my shoes for me if the laces came undone. Around about third or fourth grade, this got pretty old with my teachers, and one recess aide (who was never really all that nice to me in the first place), said that if I came to her once more with my shoes untied, then she wasn't tying them for me.

So, I took to stuffing my untied laces into the heels of my shoes, but since I loved running a lot during recess, the laces would become dislodged and posed a hazard.

My mom would sometimes buy me velcro shoes and the kinds of shoelaces that were in the shapes of little coils...like springs, alomst. Those were a Godsend for me.

Finally when I was 9 1/2 years old, my mom realized I needed more intensive help with learning to tie my shoes, and she spent and evening showing me and practicing with me - and after that, I never forgot how. I just needed a little more direct assistance than most.

I never tie my laces, I don't think I know how, I just tuck them in.

Interesting indeed. I'm 22 and still have trouble with left and right. If I think about it I know which is which but if someone tells me to turn left, my immediate reaction is to stick out both of my pinkies and check for left. (I never learned that the left hand was supposed to make an L, instead my older sister told me that I have a freckle on the inside of my left pinky and my right one is empty. That's still the first thing I do when R/L is mentioned.
I also had lots of trouble tying my shoes. In pre-k we had these wooden shoes and were supposed to tie the yarn laces and display it in the hall...I never did that, I don't think I was even able to indicate I couldn't do it. I had to have teachers tie my laces for several years until my parents just started buying me velcro shoes, or ones with the buttons and elastic loops.
I eventually did learn, but it was a complete accident. No one was able to teach me because I couldn't see all of what was happening and what their hands were doing, and every time I asked them to explain it they'd just show me again. Eventually I think I got it one time by accident and got some familiarity with what my hands were supposed to be doing. Then I just took one that someone had tied and tried until I could replicate it.

I took longer than average to tie my shoes. For the longest time, I would just tie several knots and not do the "bunny ears" whatsoever. I was forced to learn because my father was disgusted with my lack of progress, so I had to sit on the steps and keep trying until I got it right (with threats of spankings for continued failure). This was also one of the few times I had a loud, public meltdown and my mother had to step between my father and me to prevent him from hitting me.

I also hated snaps, zippers, and buttons. In high school, I hated locker combination locks. I also didn't learn how to ride a bike until I was 17. My gross motor skills, and to a lesser extent, my fine motor skills, have always been lousy. And I couldn't tell time on an analog clock until some time in junior high. Ironically, these were the only things in my childhood that indicated to my mother that something might be "wrong." In boot camp, I was eternally getting yelled at by the T.I. because I was the slowest putting on my uniform (military uniforms = lots of buttons).

I remember reading an article on Science Daily that children with poor motor coordination also tended to have problems with math since math and movement are both associated with the back of the head.

I'm 29 and I still have trouble tying my shoelaces. Learning how to do it was not that difficult. I learned that pretty fast, but I've never gotten the hang of doing it faster or with ease like most people do. I can tie my shoelaces, but I've always found those movements difficult due to my poor motor skills and it takes me longer than anyone I've met.

I wonder if I have aspects of Autism or Aspurgers or something else and if there are online tests to know these things? I had a hard time learning to tie my shoes, to hand-write, to play sports. I feel like I am slower to learn things sometimes.

I heard part of a radio interview with someone who mentioned those things as being part of Autism, so I was focusing on it. While focusing on it I had someone give me directions for doing something and I immediately did it differently that they told me.

I remember thinking it through afterward. It was as though I thought of how to do it and came up with a way in my mind. Then they explained a way that was different than the one in my mind and even though I 'noticed' it was different I almost had to do it the way I had first thought of doing it. Does that make sense?

I learned to tie my shoes when I was six and it was hard. It was also hard tying them for the first couple of years. Mine still come untied so I double tie them. They still come undone but not as often but I tie it. I honestly thought this was normal. I also don't like having them too tight or too loose because then it feels like they are going to fall off my feet if they are loose or feels like circulation is being cut off to my front of my ankles if tight.

I did not like tying my shoes when I was a kid. I had so much trouble with it that I wore mostly shoes with Velcro straps for some time. When I did learn to tie my shoes at age 6, it was difficult at first. I was taught the bunny ears method, and it kind of helped. I would also double-knot my shoelaces just to be safe.

i was late in learning on how to tir the laces. Still have trouble keeping them tied as they easily become untied. Then i get ridiculed if i am caught with an untied shoe.

Yes, I had trouble with shoe tying, which was odd because my mother had a dressmaking business in the home, and because I tried to imitate her, I had been threading needles and hand sewing from the time I was three.

I also made up my own way of running, a style that I fancied was similar to the way a horse runs, and that is how I ran during games and races at school. I now understand that it contributed to my appearance of oddness, lol.