to try and potty train my non verbal 2 year old?

[Hoptastic53]

DD was two in November and can only say Mama. Her comprehension is brilliant though, and she communicates lots but in her own little language. I'm pregnant and she has a book where the character says the baby has nappies but she's a big girl. She tells me in her own language that she's a big girl and asks to take her nappy off. She has a potty which she uses before bath time and usually always does a wee.

She is predictable as to when she'll poo nd seems to recognise the sensation beforehand. I don't mind her being in nappies and was quite happy to leave her in nappies until after the baby is born but most says now she's asking to wear knickers and use the potty so I was thinking maybe it's worth a try during half term. My sister burst out laughing when I mentioned it and thinks it's ridiculous and that I should wait until she can talk lots more. What do you think?

It's always worth a try. The key is that she has some awareness of needing to go and is able to communicate. Speech is immaterial if she can communicate. My eldest had the speech, but it wasn't communicative.

If you're starting on a potty, rather than the loo, then keeping it visible and in reach will give her the opportunity to go straight to it, or at least bring it to you.

Give it a whirl - although might need quite intensive input from you initially. Much better than not bothering until they're nearly school aged or beyond.

Do it! My son had almost no words until just before his 3rd birthday (less than ten and most not comprehensible to people other than me and DH), I assumed we would wait until he had language to potty train him.

We ended up doing it after a day spent with a friend and her similar aged son- she was potty training him and it was summer so I thought, let's see how he is at home without a nappy. Turned out he was completely ready, he never had a single accident, he just got it- and nighttime followed very soon after. This happened about 4 months before his 3rd birthday. He would just take himself off to the loo when he needed to go, if we were somewhere new I would show him where the toilet was when we arrived, and before eg a car journey we would remind him he had "big boy pants" on, so would have to hold his wees in! I was so surprised that the lack of verbal communication was no barrier for him.

FYI, we think it actually helped to bring his speech on.