any tips on toilet tranning a child with asd

[lee321]

please if any one has any tips about toilet tranning.will you please let me know.

[lee321]

my 4 year old son has asd. and im trying to tiolet train him.ive tryed a few things but nothing seems to be working.so if anyone has any tips please let me konw.

[emmalou78]

We're in the process of toilte training at the moment, my son will be 4 in july and is autistic.

we're using the recomendations of the Psychologist [clinical]

*only change his nappy in the bathroom
*take him to the toilet regularly and let him sit there for a maximum of 5 minutes
*All his nappies etc are kept in the bathroom.

• We use PECS/MAKATON to alert him to toilet time.
  
  we're hoping he'll make the connection between wee, poo and toilets soon!once its warmer I'm going for the no trousers approach, the running him to the toilet will be good exercise for me! Theres nothing a Mop or The VAX can't deal with!

[coppertop]

Ds1 was 4yrs old when he finally understood what toilet-training was all about. The miracle-worker for us was a Social Story that the speech therapist wrote for him. It was a very basic story with symbols that explained when to go and what to do when ds1 got there.

Ds1 had a fear of sitting on toilets at the time so we had to take it in stages. To start with he would only go on a potty-chair, despite being big for his age. Then he would use the small toilets designed for children when he was at school or in town. He will now use normal-sized toilets.

It also helped in the early days to give an incentive. Ds1 loved stickers so I gave him a sticker to put on his clothes each time he sat on the potty/toilet. Obviously the incentives will be different for other children so go with whatever your ds will like.

[Pixel]

We have started trying to toilet train ds. We are doing the things emmalou suggests (well the first three anyway) and we have smarties stashed in the bathroom cabinet for incentives/rewards. Not having much luck though. I'm taking him to the toilet as often as possible (dh 'forgets' so I feel like I'm doing this on my own really)but he's not exactly willing and actually getting him up the stairs seems to be my biggest problem atm. Oh for a downstairs toilet! I'm only 5'2" and a size 8 and ds has recently had a huge growth spurt which is why we are going for it now, while I've still got half a chance. He flatly refuses to sit on a potty, despite smarties!

I've noticed some people saying not to use pull-ups. I can understand why as they are too absorbent but the school nurse has recommended putting a hanky or something inside so the child can tell when they are wet. I haven't tried it yet as our pull-ups haven't been delivered yet (have been using pants indoors) but wondered if anyone else has and did it work?

[emmalou78]

just to add,this weekend, out of the blue elijah has made some progress on the toilet training front, more and more his nappies are dry and he's using the toilet to wee!!!

So I've brought him some proper pants, and so long as we're home he's going to be wearing those!

we've been following the psychs recomendations since summer, and sitting him on the loo everytime we go up since november, so its slow progress, but its progress and thats what counts

[spursmum]

Im going to try again in the next couple of weeks when it gets a bit warmer. Ds is finally realising when he is dirty or wet, it's just trying to get him to tell me that he needs to go!

[Davros]

Don't wait too long. In my experience, a child with ASD won't necessarily give you the "signs" an NT child will so they need you to lead it. But, obviously, be sensitive to whether its simply too soon or not. My DS (sever ASD, non-verbal) was trained at 3.5 but it took at least a year before I didn't even think about it. I would agree to put them on a time schedule, preferably using a visual timer such as the Time Timer (from the NAS) or, even better, the Electronic Time Tracker (from www.letterbox.co.uk). I'd also use a BIG card showing "toilet" (either word or picture), eventually to help them request/initiate. At first you could show and point to the card each time. Use potties if toilets are offputting or not near enough, you can get different colours, shapes and ones that play music! Have special reinforcers for toilet ONLY. Ignore accidents, clean up when they're not looking. Reward any attempt. Use a short visual schedule, maybe combined with star chart/token board. Show the reinforcer on the board. We also did it at a time when DS could wear pants only rather than messing around with Pull Ups, but I did use Pull Ups for a long time on journeys etc.

[coppertop]

We've still got to go through it all again with ds2 so I'll probably be needing all these other tips soon.

[spursmum]

WAHEY!!! We finally cracked it!!!
It's been a week and he's been dry for 3 days now. Still unsure about pooing but I don't mind that at all. He's soooooo proud of himself now he's a Big Boy!!!

[springgreens]

My son is seemingly a little bit more aware of what he's doing in his nappy of late.

Call me stupid, but please could you explain why not to use pull ups? (is it the absorbency thing?)and Davros, did you use a timer to stop your son sitting for ages without doing anything?

Thanks

[spursmum]

The gospel according to COD is that Pull-ups confuse a child because of their absorbancy. It does with my ds.
I'll let you into my secret. I used a sticker chart, everytime he sat on the toilet he got a sticker. The next week it was a sticker for every time he sat there for as long as I wanted him there, then the next wewk its a sticker for everytime he wees.
Try and work out how to bribe your ds but don't be too hard on him.I tried in the new year and he just wasn't ready. This time he got in 4 days!