The Art of Hand Washing – Part 2 of 3: “The Soap Dispenser”

Part 2 of three: “Soap dispenser” Continued from part 1:

Soap dispensers come in all shapes, sizes and access methods. There are disposables pumps that are kept on your counter and commercial dispensers that hang on walls. How we actually access the soap from inside the pump requires different fine motor skills that include hand strength, finger dexterity/ strength, pronation/ supination, wrist flexion/ extension, bilateral hand coordination, grading movement and more. To make things more complicated, these dispensers come in different sizes that the child has to generalize the skills too.  Let’s take a moment to appreciate all the practice and skill it takes to actually get that soap onto your hands!

Wall Dispensers:

This dispenser hangs vertically with soap dispensing at the bottom.  Check out below all the different access methods for vertical mount below (i.e. hold hand under, push, pull, single finger press, etc.).

Countertop Soaps and Dispensers:

These almost always require using two hands and grading movement. Again, all different access methods such as; squeezing, rubbing, rotating, pressing, pushing, etc.