Putting toothpaste on a toothbrush Dyspraxia Movement Skills

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Putting toothpaste on a toothbrush

There are two ways that you can use these videos:

Use the video as a movement demonstration. Watch the video and see how the person in the video moves their hands to squeeze toothpaste onto their toothbrush. Then practice squeezing toothpaste onto your toothbrush, copying the actions in the video. Do it again, watch and copy as often as you need.
Imagine yourself doing the action whilst watching it. Imagine that you are the person in the video. As you watch the video, try to imagine the feeling of moving your hands to squeeze toothpaste onto your toothbrush. Then, practice squeezing toothpaste onto your toothbrush, copying the actions in the video. Do it again, watch while imagining the feeling, and copy as often as you need.

Top tips for putting toothpaste on a toothbrush

As well as watching the videos, follow our top tips for squeezing toothpaste:

Squeeze from near the top of the tube to stop too much toothpaste coming out
The amount of toothpaste your squeeze out should be about the same size as a pea
Resting your elbows against the edge of a sink may help steady your hands when squeezing
After putting toothpaste on the brush you might want to check out the Brush DJ timer app so you know how long to brush your teeth for.

Note: These movement demonstration videos have been designed to help children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD; dyspraxia) learn how to apply toothpaste to a brush successfully. The videos show a movement demonstration for squeezing toothpaste, performed by a typically developing child model and recorded from a first-person viewpoint. A qualified occupational therapist instructed the child model how to perform the movement demonstration to ensure that an appropriate technique was demonstrated. The videos are free for use by dyspraxic people, parents, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, teachers, or anybody else who would find them useful for supporting the learning of self-care skills in children with dyspraxia/DCD. Putting toothpaste on a toothbrush Dyspraxia Movement Skills.