Potty training with autism

[user1488142072]

Hi my son is currently 3 years 2months and has just been diagnosed with autism after 7 months of appointments and assessments. We are currently trying to potty train him, he will go to the potty for a pee or use the toilet with our help( tells us when he's done too) but that's if he doesn't have a nappy or pants on. He doesn't understand if he has pants on to take them off instead just pees into them. His speak isn't the best as he attends speech therapy. Any recommendations on what would be the next best step :) sorry new to all this and just thought it's best to get others tips.

[sarah181213]

Yeah he takes off his nappy when playing in house and will go to potty only to do a pee isn't confident enough just yet to do a poo in the potty and will wait till he has a nappy on again.
Thanks for the advice

[WellTidy]

Even for NT children, it can take a while to build up to being willing to do a poo in a potty after learning to do wees. My eldest DS 9yo now, who is NT, took weeks to do this.

We potty trained my youngest, who has ASD, when he just turned 4, so your DS is doing really well. We run an ABA programme for him, which was 9 months in at that point, so we used ABA methods which he understood through having that for so long before.

Would your DS respond to a reward? You could backwards chain, so reward for what is he confident in at the moment (wee on potty), and then maybe a reward for (with some input from you, a tiny bit from him) pants down and wee on potty. Or whatever you think a small step on from wee on potty would be. Make whatever you are giving him as a reward rewarding for him (but this may not necessarily be what would be rewarding for other children of the same age) eg a play with a new toy that he would like, an edible thing etc.

[Shootingstar2289]

Hi, my son is five and was diagnosed with Autism last year.

He wasn't potty trained until gone 3 and a half. I tried for months and he just didn't seem to get it. Like your son he would used the potty if he had no nappy or trousers on which is great for a child with ASD to evendo that but there gets to a point where you need to get past this stage and it didn't seem to happen for months.

I waited until the Christmas holidays to start the potty training with trousers on.. No pre-school and lots of time at home! I bought loads of pairs of pants and cheap trousers and prepared myself for lots of washing. I bought a small potty for the car and a piddle pad (?) for the car seat. It took the whole Christmas holiday but we cracked it in that two weeks.

I would just put trousers on him. I knew he would often want a wee 20 minutes after a decent amount of fluid so I'd pull his trousers down wait for him to go and back up. He was non verbal at this age so he couldn't tell me when he needed to go.

It took determination and lots of washing but we got there and I'm so glad I went for it. He went back to pre-school in pants! They were amazed!!

It might take longer for your son. But I wish you the best of luck!

[UserReuser]

Dd just couldn't do it until 4, then it came together with the aid of visual prompts to g through together. We still use them (pants down, toilet, roll, flush, wash hands, dry. Above the sink hand washing is broken down further) as it stops things like forgetting to pull knickers down