Parents struggling to teach kids how to tie their shoes may find reprieve in a now-viral lacing technique.
It comes courtesy of Kirsten Johnson, a 33-year-old mother-of-two from Sylvan Lake, Alta. The former phys. ed and math teacher came up with the simple shoe lacing method more than a decade ago, when she worked with kids with autism and Asperger’s.
She decided to share it last month on Facebook Live, where she didn’t expect it to get more than a few likes from her mom friends. To her surprise, it’s drawn more than six million views and thousands of comments from grateful parents around the world.
“It’s kind of mind-blowing, I can’t believe it,” Johnson says.
She thinks the key to the method’s success is its structure and repetition. It seems to do the trick for anyone who has a tough time with fine motor skills, including one woman who lost both her legs and all but one of her fingers.
“You didn’t just help little kids around the world… you helped me too,” the woman named Lisa wrote in a message. Until seeing Johnson’s video, she hadn’t had the will to re-teach herself the skill.
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Johnson admits untying the laces is a little more complicated with this method. Tugging at them won’t cut it. You basically have to pull the “bunny” loops out.
Some critics have also complained it doesn’t teach shoe-tying the “right” way. Johnson doesn’t appear too bothered by that.
Her seven-year-old son Rylan included. He was able to pick up the “traditional” method of shoe-lace tying within five minutes after perfecting this method, but struggled before that.
“It took the walls down.”
You can see him demonstrate the technique below:
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