Autism and potty and training.

[Hereshopingforimprovement]

My son has autism and is just coming up for 3. His communication skills are very limited but people keep asking me about potty training. I'm not sure he is ready as I don't think he would understand. Does anyone who has been through potty training with an autistic child have any advice on how/when to do this?

No advice but so glad you started this thread as in similar situation and would love some advice from other parents. DS almost three and awaiting diagnosis. Not sure what signs of readiness for training to look for...I don't think he would understand right now so not rushing but also don't want to assume he is not ready based on verbal skills if that makes sense? Best of luck with your son's training!

We waited until my ds was nearly 4 before potty training. He didn't show any 'signs' as such, which I think is quite common with autistic children. I gave it a go on a whim and he took to it much quicker than I expected.

I was recommended this site by my HV www.eric.org.uk. But basically I just chased him round the house with a potty and gave him an m&m every time he did anything even the tiniest drop in the potty. He got the idea pretty quickly mainly because he loves chocolate and I wouldn't give it to him any other time. After he'd got it, I made him go to the potty rather than bringing it to him.

I used visuals of the potty as well to reinforce what he was doing. It did take a while before he was consistent (probably a couple of months) and he still sometimes has problems generalising (it took a lot longer to get him to go at nursery).

I was just saying on another thread that I wished I talked to nursery more before I started training at home. It was a bit of a shock to everyone that he took to it, so nursery weren't prepared at all and the first week was really stressful for ds.

My 4 year old isn't trained yet. He doesn't understand what we're asking him to do, and unfortunately isn't motivated by rewards (we've tried!).

He is under the continence team who have been very helpful. They have given us lots of tips, but they also don't think he's ready to train yet. They also organised for us to get free nappies (you have to be 4 in our area to get these). Could you ask for a referral?

I have a 3.5 year old DD who is being assessed for ASD. Potty training has been a nightmare. We've been trying off and on for 12 months and still got nowhere!

My ds is not far off been 6 and still in nappies.
Please don't rush him it can make it worse.
Our son attends a sen school and there's still some there that are 11 or older and in nappies.
With all there extra problems potty training isn't easy

My DS was trained at 3.1, he was non verbal at the time but did show signs of readiness as he was staying dry for hours. I didn’t think he would be able to do it but he learnt to use the toilet in 2 days! He is 3.7 now and only wears nappies at night.

If you do decide to try, my advice is to use lots of visuals, take him to the toilet with you to ‘see’ the process, picture cards to explain what is happening, using the toilet instead of a potty (my DS hated his potty as he didn’t see the relevance), and avoid using pull ups.

My DS is now 8 and was still in nappies at 5. He has ADHD, ASD, Global Delay and Learning Difficulties. My advice is patience! You will know when he is ready and showing signs. I pretty much had to wait until he was doing it himself as he wouldn't accept any guidance or help from me. Potty training is a nightmare with our special children and I would advise not adding to stress you already have by making this an issue. My son was tube fed until he was 18 months old and I used to stress about it permanently until someone advised me to chill out and think about it in terms of adulthood - how many adults take their food through a tube that don't have serious medical issues? So the same applies, how many adults do you know that are in nappies that don't have serious medical reasons? Relax and then so will he