Toilet Training non-verbal child (ASD)

[Iatemyskinnyperson]

Planning to start TTing DS2 (age 4 ASD) in the New Year - really want him trained before school starts in September (optimistic I know!!)

My question is about communication really. He is still mostly non-verbal and he hasn't really taken to PECS. We do use it, but he's never used it spontaneously IYKWIM, also I'm not 100% convinced he understands choices using PECS.

Visual Schedules have worked pretty well, using photo's.

Has anyone successfully TT'd a non-verbal child? What method did you use to communicate to them? I'm just concerned how I'm going to get the message through to him!!

Also, how long should we stick at it? I have a feeling there will be a couple of false starts!! When we trained DS1 (who's NT) you could gauge that after 2/3 days or so you should see some progress. Obviously this is going to be slower with DS2, but how long did it take your kids before they started to 'get it'?

Sorry, lots of questions!!!

Hope someone can give me some pointers...
Thanks

You're going to wonder why I bothered posting... Yes, I did potty train my son who has ASD when he was between 3 and 4 years of age (and almost entirely non-verbal) but I can't remember how in detail... I got books and DVDs about using the potty (Bear in the Big Blue House was an especial hit with him) and I put potties all round the place and I think for the first day or so I had him on them for most of the day. No pants or anything initially then I got some special saggy trousers (to try and ensure it felt nothing like pull-ups). Effusive praise for success etc etc Did a star chart but he really wasn't interested. Wee success came in days pretty much but it took about nine months before we had poo in the right place. At the time he could say "No" and quite a few nouns (if pressed to name things) but that was the extent of it - I'd delayed attempting training because of the language situation and I was kicking myself when I found how easily he grasped it

Hi, my ds doesnt have asd but he has sli and development delay and I put off potty training him until he was 3 and a half and ready to go to ms nursery. I found that pecs was no good for him as he just kept taking the picture to the toilet thinking we wanted him to play a matching game, pull ups were no good as he thought it was a nappy and using the potty confused him.so in the end i did it by putting him in underpants and constantly taking him to the toilet to remind him to go, it wasnt easy at first as because he was nonverbal it was up to us to predict when he needed to go, we did have a few accidents at first but he started to grasp it after about 3 weeks. Hes now 4 and a half still can only say a few words but has a fantastic toilet routine and is also dry though the night.Just whatever you decide to do just keep trying until he grasps it because when i first wanting to train him I was told to wait until he could speak more but im so glad I didnt listen.

ds severely ASD non verbal aged 10 was trained last year at school. They simply put him in pants and took him to toilet every 30 mins. It took about 6-7 months. DD2 also ASD non verbal I trained at home when she was 4. She is now dry in day but still poos in pants. With her I put her in pants and spent about two weeks following her round and put her on potty every twenty minutes or so in the first few days. Eventually managed to spot signs she needed to go and made her sit on potty and wee. She was quite upset to start with but gave massive praise and reinforcement for weeing and she evntually got the hang of it herself. Not easy, I nearly gave up but had good support from people who also took turns to follow her round and put on potty. You really need to commit to it massively for quite a while which is really hard as you obviously need to do other jobs. Good luck.

Do it when you have a good few days (maybe whole week) where you dont have to leave the house at all. Follow all the above advice, and make sure you have bio washing powder handy, it gets rid of the smell of urine.

Thanks everyone.