Toilet training is usually started in typical children at age 2-3 when good bladder control has been attained. This is evident when the nappy is dry when they wake up in the morning. But in the case of children with Autism, many things should be taken into consideration. The presence of gastrointestinal problems like constipation or the child's receptiveness may affect toilet training.
My son C attained good bladder control at age 2 but was not ready to receive toilet training instructions since his attention span was short and fleeting with poor communication skills. He was afraid of the toilet bowl and gets startled when he heard the flush of the toilet.
When he turned 4, he felt uncomfortable wearing pull up diapers and would remove it once he had peed or pooped on it. I took advantage of this and started bringing him to the toilet every hour and ask him to pee. His therapist did the same thing when C was in school and gave me visual potty cards to be used at home.
Our early attempts were not successful because C could not get the purpose of bringing him to the toilet every hour. Visual potty cards along with simple verbal instructions were ineffective. So the therapist, being male just like C, made an actual demonstration of peeing along with short and easy to understand verbal instructions. It was the real act of voiding that made him understand what to do should the need arises. This worked on C and from then on, he would say "wee-wee" while making his way to the toilet to pee.
The issue of micturating has been resolved. He never wore his pull up diapers even when going to bed at night. But he would ask to put them on whenever he felt the urge to defecate. I began toilet training for stool by asking him to sit on the toilet bowl. He was afraid doing it so I sat on the toilet and had him sit on my lap while I sang his favorite songs from Barney's. After doing that several times, the tension of sitting on the toilet vanished. But still our attempts to make him poop on the loo were unsuccessful.
Until one day while putting C's toys and stuff in order, I saw this compact disc entitled Baby Songs which his grandmother gave him I forgot when. It was a musical video featuring children and tackles issues like sharing toys with friends, worries about being away from mom and most of all- toilet training. The toilet training music video was entitled "Today I took my diapers off". It showed cute toddlers sitting in the potty and demonstrating how easy and fun toileting can be. It made me realize too, that C may be frightened to sit on the toilet thinking he might fall. He was too big to sit on his potty trainer but still too small to sit on the toilet.
The Baby Song music videos became his favorite and watching them became part of his daily routine. I watched with him often especially on the toilet training part of the video and would tell him that big boys like him should do it on the toilet, not on diapers which are only for babies. He would smile and I took that as an approval. After a few days, I took him shopping and asked him what toilet training seat would he like. He was smiling again and picked up the seat with a yellow duck which was somewhat similar with the one he saw on the music video. From then on, our toileting dilemma were all gone. He would go to the toilet and pee on his own and would ask for his "duckie toilet seat" when he felt the need for it.
It certainly not easy to have a special child toilet trained. It entailed a lot of patience and avoidance of getting mad whenever your child fails to do as told. Getting angry during potty training wont help but may only result to your child being traumatized by the experience. Different techniques have been used by parents. But all of these techniques have one thing in common- "patience".
If you wish to see the video that helped me potty train my child, kindly check "Today I Took My Diapers Off". Hope it helps your child, too.
Photo Credit:
Aerial View of Cute Kid by Photostock
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| Visual Potty Chart |
When he turned 4, he felt uncomfortable wearing pull up diapers and would remove it once he had peed or pooped on it. I took advantage of this and started bringing him to the toilet every hour and ask him to pee. His therapist did the same thing when C was in school and gave me visual potty cards to be used at home.
Our early attempts were not successful because C could not get the purpose of bringing him to the toilet every hour. Visual potty cards along with simple verbal instructions were ineffective. So the therapist, being male just like C, made an actual demonstration of peeing along with short and easy to understand verbal instructions. It was the real act of voiding that made him understand what to do should the need arises. This worked on C and from then on, he would say "wee-wee" while making his way to the toilet to pee.
The issue of micturating has been resolved. He never wore his pull up diapers even when going to bed at night. But he would ask to put them on whenever he felt the urge to defecate. I began toilet training for stool by asking him to sit on the toilet bowl. He was afraid doing it so I sat on the toilet and had him sit on my lap while I sang his favorite songs from Barney's. After doing that several times, the tension of sitting on the toilet vanished. But still our attempts to make him poop on the loo were unsuccessful.Until one day while putting C's toys and stuff in order, I saw this compact disc entitled Baby Songs which his grandmother gave him I forgot when. It was a musical video featuring children and tackles issues like sharing toys with friends, worries about being away from mom and most of all- toilet training. The toilet training music video was entitled "Today I took my diapers off". It showed cute toddlers sitting in the potty and demonstrating how easy and fun toileting can be. It made me realize too, that C may be frightened to sit on the toilet thinking he might fall. He was too big to sit on his potty trainer but still too small to sit on the toilet.
The Baby Song music videos became his favorite and watching them became part of his daily routine. I watched with him often especially on the toilet training part of the video and would tell him that big boys like him should do it on the toilet, not on diapers which are only for babies. He would smile and I took that as an approval. After a few days, I took him shopping and asked him what toilet training seat would he like. He was smiling again and picked up the seat with a yellow duck which was somewhat similar with the one he saw on the music video. From then on, our toileting dilemma were all gone. He would go to the toilet and pee on his own and would ask for his "duckie toilet seat" when he felt the need for it.
It certainly not easy to have a special child toilet trained. It entailed a lot of patience and avoidance of getting mad whenever your child fails to do as told. Getting angry during potty training wont help but may only result to your child being traumatized by the experience. Different techniques have been used by parents. But all of these techniques have one thing in common- "patience".
If you wish to see the video that helped me potty train my child, kindly check "Today I Took My Diapers Off". Hope it helps your child, too.
Photo Credit:
Aerial View of Cute Kid by Photostock
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