Potty training , ASD

[PorkHollywood]

Was just wondering if anyone has any useful tips?
My four year old is autistic, non verbal, and still in nappies. He absolutely knows though when he is going to wee (we leave his nappy off and he won't go for hours, he will bring a nappy over for us to put on and happily wee in that once it's on).
I've tried guiding a bucket when he makes the sign he's going to go (he grabs his winky and looks a little alarmed) but he absolutely won't wee in the bucket.

He also seems to be dry through the night and wees when he first wakes up.

Has anyone been in the same boat? He starts school in September, I want to make it easier for him and his one to one if possible.

My Ds was like this, no social motivation to use the toilet but could hold his bladder for long periods of time and appeared to be aware of and in control of his bodily functions..
Will your son sit on the toilet on a kiddy seat?
We mucked about with pull ups / potty’s for ages with no success.
In the end we just decided to bite the bullet and put him in pants all the time, with regular sitting on the toilet, and clear message of “wee’s and poo’s go in the toilet”.
He loves the iPad, so initially there was a lot of playing on the iPad whilst sat on the toilet which motivated him to actually sit there.
Once we took this approach, he actually picked it up really quickly and was dry through the night which was amazing!
Hope this helps, but of course every child is different and it is time consuming- we started over Easter when both myself and DH had time off from work and DS had a break from preschool.
Good luck! x

My dds with autism potty trained at 3. Both non verbal. Following the NT way of training how no impact. Neither were remotely bothered by star charts or rewards. They both went naked and I’d watch them closely and pop them on the potty. As they got more reliable we moved to toilet. Both had the speech for that. Have you tried a visual? Pop him on the potty or toilet and show him the visual? Sounds like he could be ready. My youngest is 6 and pre-verbal so limited language but will take herself to the loo (still have issues with bottom wiping). She’s fine unless she has an upset tummy and she tries to clean up the mess (she’s has an autoimmune disease).

I found reading him social stories...books from publicibraries useful

I so got advi e from youtube

Check

Marie Barbera...

Very useful

Social stories might help. And visuals.

We were very lucky that my ds hated the feel of a nappy so toilets were nicer to him. He preferred a seat on the toilet than a potty (i suppose it made more sense as thats what we did) my nt ds didnt really get it till we put him in pants. He couldnt feel he was going at all.

Also see if he likes "Mr Poo goes to Pooland"? DD loved the sound effects (not sure it actually helped us - despite DD being verbal we struggled - but I've heard people say it worked well for them!)

Is ds a visual learner?

If so, there's a brilliant video on YouTube called Tom's Toilet Triumph which is specially designed to help SEN kids with continence issues. Basically, it's a cartoon but explicit (shows cartoon poo coming out of a cartoon bum). Really helped demonstrate to my child exactly what he needed to do (we tried all those potty songs and 'Elmo does potty time' but they were too polite and euphemistic basically - ds was confused about what was going on. He needed some more direct.)

Basically, 5 or 6 viewings of Tom's Toilet Triumph and we cracked it :-)