Potty Training Help
From Other Parents Of Autistic Children...
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Since potty training is such a huge issue for our children,
as parents write and explain "how they did it", I will share these experiences
with you here in case the experience of other parents provides your answer.
The reason I could see this working is because, based on the need for
"order in understanding everything", I could see an autistic child wanting to "put it somewhere, where it
belongs"... in the "garbage" or "bucket"....so, I think these are definitely worth a try.
In just the first two example... there is a common
thread that worked... parents REMOVED THE
DIAPER/PULL-UP, etc.
If you just can't bring yourself to do that, you may want to try putting a
removable "insert" in your child's underwear to make him understand the concept
of "garbage" a little more (that's how I'm planning to "start tackling
this issue again")... something such as a sanitary napkin may provide a great
"liner" for this particular function... it would help make the "mess" easier to
clean if the child poops in his pants and would certainly help "solidify" the
concept of "this is garbage" and "this garbage goes into the potty garbage". :o)
Where ok with the parent, I provided their personal email in case their
suggestion works for you and you want to thank them personally.
Parents who provided suggestions and find they are getting
"overwhelmed" with thank yous (wouldn't that be wonderful!!!), can have their
emails/names removed from this section simply by contacting me and asking me to do so.
I want to thank all parents for sharing their experience with others!
1. From Heather Thorpe:
www.Thorpeheather@aol.com
What Heather did was to let her son go "bare butt" outside when she knew
her son was due for a bowel movement. She put the potty nearby in
the yard. Eventually, her son just "had to go" and so, he sat down on the
potty, and went.
I'd recommend putting a long t-shirt on your child to cover his bottom if
you do this...just so that neighbors don't complain to authorities that a naked
kid is outside (some will do that - so save yourself the trouble).
2. From Karen H.
"We had gotten into a terrible habit of giving him a pull up
to poop in for 2 years. That was tough to break. Finally I said no more
pull-ups and he started going in his underwear so then I let him run around in
the house without underwear and named the potty insert which is removable the
"underwear bucket". He grabbed it held it under him and while half standing
pooped into it. His reward was 5 president stickers (Presidents have been his
passion since
age 3). So we did that for 1 week. Then we made president pictures with each one
saying a different statement about poop. On a visual schedule I showed on
top: poop in underwear bucket 5 president stickers poop in toilet president
saying
That afternoon he sat on the toilet and when he actually did it his eyes grew
big with HUGE smile and he said "I love pooping on the toilet and splash it in
the water". He then received 1 president saying and was so proud. (The stickers
got old because he already earned each president so the 1 new president with a
saying was like gold to him)."
I'll add more suggestions as I
receive them. :o)
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