Abstract:
The invention provides an instructional system and method for young children, or adults with limited cognitive ability, to dress themselves. The invention takes advantage of the ability of young children, or adults with limited cognitive abilities, to respond to visual clues and instructions. Thus, the invention provides directional indicia that are integrated into the surface of a garment for guiding the user to wear the garment without assistance.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    The invention relates to an instructional system and method for young children, or adults with limited cognitive ability, to dress themselves. More particularly, the invention provides a system and method that allows young children, or adults with diminished cognitive ability, to dress themselves using directional indicia disposed on various locations of a garment.  
           [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0004]    Young children, or adults with diminished cognitive ability, often have difficulty dressing themselves without significant assistance. These individuals may become frustrated when they attempt to dress themselves. The problem is magnified with clothing items such as coats, jackets and button-front shirts and blouses that require the wearer to sequentially place their arms through sleeve openings or arm-holes as they place the clothing item onto their back before securing the item with buttons or clasps disposed on the front of the garment. Young children in particular often have a difficult time determining where to place their arms in order to wear the clothing item, often resulting in the garment being worn backwards, upside down or inside out.  
           [0005]    The task of dressing young children, or adults with diminished cognitive ability, becomes even more daunting in situations where they are present in larger numbers. For example, in a classroom, a teacher may find him or herself assisting a large number of children with putting on their coats or jackets. This can place additional time pressures on teachers. In order to assist young children with dressing themselves, parents may attach markings or instructions to their clothing items. However, these markings are typically not uniform as they are designed by individual parents. Such markings are also typically attached onto the clothing items so they must be placed on the clothing item every time it is worn and removed once the clothing item is on the child&#39;s body. This requires significant time and energy on the part of parents.  
           [0006]    Thus, there is a need for a uniform instructional system for assisting young children, or adults with diminished cognitive ability, with the task of dressing themselves that takes advantage of their ability to respond to visual cues and instructions. In addition, there is a need for such a system that is integrated within the clothing item so as not to require removal or maintenance before or after use.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0007]    In view of the difficulties described above, the invention provides a system and method for assisting and instructing young children, or adults with cognitive deficiencies, with how to dress themselves. The invention takes advantage of fact that such individuals often respond well to visual cues and instructions when trying to learn new tasks or remember tasks that they have not yet mastered. The invention provides directional indicia disposed at various positions on clothing items which direct the user on how to wear the garment. The directional indicia are integrated into the garment, and thus do have to be installed prior to use or removed once the garment is worn.  
           [0008]    In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the directional indicia are disposed adjacent to the openings for each of the sleeves so as to direct the user to place their arms into the sleeves in a direction indicated by the directional indicia, thus, allowing the user to wear the garment.  
           [0009]    In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, the directional indicia are oriented in a manner so that the user is directed to dress in a manner not typically used by adults. In this manner, the user, following the directional indicia, slides his or her hands into the sleeves of the clothing item, then flips the garment over their head allowing their arms to slide through the sleeves so that the garment is then placed onto the body.  
           [0010]    In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, the directional indicia are shaped as the outline of hands allowing the user to place his or her hands over the outline indicating the direction in which their hands should enter the sleeve opening in order to wear the garment.  
           [0011]    It should be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory, and provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0012]    The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention. Together, with the written description, these drawings serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings:  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 1 shows the instructional system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention incorporated into a garment;  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 2 shows the instructional system in accordance with another embodiment of the invention;  
         [0015]    FIGS.  3 - 6  sequentially illustrate a method for using the instructional system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0016]    [0016]FIG. 1 shows the instructional system for assisting young children, or adults with diminished cognitive abilities, with dressing themselves in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 1 shows a garment  100  which is shown laid flat and oriented upside down (e.g., if laid flat on a floor, with the interior of the garment facing upwards, with the collar of the garment near the feet of the potential wearer and the exterior of the garment against the floor). The garment  100  is also opened so that an inner lining  106  of the garment  100  is visible. Sleeves  102  and  104  of the garment  100  are also shown laid flat. The garment  100  also has sleeve openings  112  and  114  through which a user places his or her arms in order to wear the garment  100 . Directional indicia  108  and  110  are disposed on the surface of the inner lining  106 . Thus, the directional indicia are integrated into the garment  100 .  
         [0017]    In accordance with this embodiment of the invention, the directional indicia  108  and  110  are arrows pointing in the direction of the sleeve openings  112  and  114 . Thus, as will be described in greater detail below with reference to FIGS.  3 - 6 , a user (not shown) places their hands into the garment over the directional indicia  108  and  110  and then slides their hands in the direction indicated by the directional indicia. This results in the users hands and arms entering the sleeves  102  and  104 . As this point, as the user&#39;s arms are entering the sleeves  102  and  104 , the user lifts the garment  100  over their head so that their arms completely enter the sleeves  102  and  104 . Through this action, the user has accomplished wearing the garment  100  and the directional indicia are  108  and  110  are no longer visible. It is important to note that the directional indicia  108  and  110  may be any of a number of symbols or indicia indicating placement or direction, such as, but not limited to, arrows, pointers, or the outline of hands or portions of the hands, any of which instruct a user where to place or insert their hands in order to wear the garment.  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 2 shows the instructional system for assisting young children, or adults with diminished cognitive abilities, with dressing themselves in accordance with another embodiment of the invention. FIG. 2 shows a garment  200  which is shown laid flat and oriented upside down as described above. The garment  200  is also opened so that an inner lining  206  of the garment  200  is visible. Sleeves  202  and  204  of the garment  200  are also shown laid flat. The garment  200  also has sleeve openings  212  and  214  through which a user places his or her arms in order to wear the garment  200 . In FIG. 2, the directional indicia are in the shape of hands  208  and  210  that are disposed on the surface of the inner lining  206 . Thus, the hands  208  and  210  are integrated into the design of the garment  200 . In accordance with this embodiment of the invention, the hands  208  and  210  indicate the position where a user may place their hands in order to wear the garment  200  as described below.  
         [0019]    It is noted that in either of the embodiments of FIGS. 1 and 2, the indicia may be removeably affixed to the garment, such as by velcro or the like. This would enable the indicia to be interchanged or removed.  
         [0020]    FIGS.  3 - 6  sequentially illustrate a process for instructing individuals how to dress themselves using the instructional system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 3 shows a user  302 , in this case a young child. The user has hands  304  and  306 . FIG. 3 also shows a garment  308  which includes the instructional system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. In FIG. 3, the garment  308  includes an inner lining  310 , sleeves  312  and  314  and sleeve openings  316  and  318 . In FIG. 3, directional indicia in the shape of hands  320  and  322  are disposed adjacent to the sleeve openings  316  and  318 .  
         [0021]    As shown in FIG. 4, the user  302  places their hands  304  and  306  onto the outline of hands  320  and  322  (not visible) and then slides their hands towards the sleeve openings  316  and  318 . FIG. 5 illustrates the next steps in the process for using the instructional system in accordance with the invention. In FIG. 5, the user  302  continues moving their hands through the sleeve openings  314  and  316  (shown in FIG. 4) and simultaneously hoists the garment  308  over their head. The user&#39;s arms then slide through the sleeve openings  316  and  318  (shown on FIG. 4). In FIG. 6, the user&#39;s arms are almost completely through the sleeves  312  and  314  (shown in FIG. 4) of the garment  308  and the garment  308  is properly oriented with respect to the user  302 . The garment  308  then slides down the user&#39;s body and is properly worn.  
         [0022]    It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications and variations of this invention provided that they come within the scope of any claims and their equivalents.