Hi mommas! I need some kind advice please. My son will be three years old in September. Recently he was diagnosed with autism. He is mostly nonverbal and also in the 100% percentile and is very large for his age. He wears size 4-5 and is about 40 lbs probably a little more now. I need some guidance because I’m just at a loss.
Since about the time he turned two he’s been giving the cues he wants to potty train, like playing in poop or taking his clothes off and peeing randomly. I am with him constantly and he will do this right in front of me, even peeing on me more than once. He will have days where he ‘gets it’ and will pee and poop on the potty but most days he won’t tell me when he needs to go and will throw a fit when placed on the toilet. How often should I be putting him on the toilet, especially if he’s so angry about sitting there? I make potty time a very positive experience so it’s just a toddler tantrum when he starts that. And how do I make potty training a more positive process? He doesn’t have the cognitive ability to understand things like charts as a reward, he still needs immediate rewards like a piece of chocolate or a sticker. I also have a 14 month old daughter who is showing interest in the potty as well. Is it too soon to try and start potty training her?
Hi! I’m a behavioral technician for kiddos with Autism and here are a few things that have worked for my kids. We set a timer that they can see and hear to let them know it’s potty time. We go regularly at first to encourage as much actual in-toilet action as we can. High praise when it happens. They might be a little resistant at first from the amount of times we go, definitely have had to let them de-escalate first then redirect back to potty time. Some kids we let watch a video while on the potty until they went. Others we had their preferred item (favorite toy etc) on the sink “waiting for you to go potty and wash your hands!” as a reward. We’ve used a method sort of like weaning to get them to not expect an immediate reward for every potty time. For example one of my kids really loved a Peppa Pig stuffed animal. We started with the doll on the sink which she’d get after potty and hands washed. After she mastered that, we had Peppa in the hall just outside the bathroom. And eventually Peppa would be in the classroom (or equal to) and the kiddo knew after potty time she could go back and play. It really just depends on what works specifically for your little one. Good luck!