Any tips for moving to a big bed?

[slowlygoingbonkers]

Ds who is 22 months has been scaling his cot so we are going to put him in a big bed tonight. The problem is that he is a non talker and doesn't seem to understand what we say ( another concern of ours) so I feel that reward charts and things won't work.
Has anyone got any tips to keep him in bed or should we just let him do his own thing and if he has fell asleep on the floor just transfer him when he is asleep?
Tia.

Ok, this is my experience, so please take it at face value.

I transferred my DS at 22 months as he was able to get out of his cot. Got him a full sized single with a safety rail. And a stair gate on his door. He fell asleep on the floor quite a few times, sometimes quite purposely!

He was also hardly verbal, but we've never had a problem with his receptive language. He got his bed very quickly.

Have you seen anyone about his language? He sounds quite similar to my son (now4) we now have a dx of high functioning autism, which while scary at the time has really helped us access support and also make sure that DS is a happy little boy

As I said, that might not be relevant to you and feel free to ignore, but if you have concerns, then the sooner you seek support, the better. Starting with a speech and language therapist would be good.

DS now has speech within normal range - for DS it was expressive language rather than receptive language, but we've had to look at how he learns.... It's not NT behaviour and understanding that has helped massively

Hi thanks for your reply, I did phone the hv about 3 months ago and have heard nothing back. I think I will phone today and push for an appointment. I know boys can be a bit slower but the contrast between him and our dds are startling.

We moved DD a month ago at 17mo as she was climbing out of her cot. I'd definitely recommend the Supernanny style approach where you put them back and comfort them for the first two times and then subsequently you just keep putting them back in silence. (Even if it is 76 times to start with!) Exhausting as it is it took about a week for DD to realise that getting out of bed was futile and we haven't looked back. It's great now when she gets up in the morning as she just gets herself up and comes padding in to us for a cuddle without crying.

We used that approach with dd1 and dd2 with great effect but wasn't sure if it would work with ds with him being a non talker and not understanding us. On the other hand it won't do any harm to try.

Ah, well you're a dab hand! I don't see why it wouldn't work as it's a non-verbal form of communication in itself. So long as it's not too traumatic, of course.

If you have a non verbal child, I would really suggest a stair gate on their door for safety. You can make sure their room is safe.

I do agree that girls are faster... I have 3 girls and DS is way different, but none verbal at 22months... While it may not be a problem, it's worth starting the process, just in case.

At 22 mons, my DD told me that pizza was delicious, the cake was disgusting and eurodisney was the amazing! I wish I'd acted sooner with DS.

Again, I reiterate that I'm talking about my DS, not yours. Just offering a pov x

With DS we just moved him when he started climbing out of his cot at 19 months.

We out the cot mattress on the floor to catch him when he fell out of bed.

We put a stair gate on his bedroom door.

He only fell out of bed twice (his bed is only about 6" off the floor).