Potty training a SEN child
My daughter is 4yo and still not potty trained. She is currently on the ASD pathway and has communication problems. She seems oblivious to the fact that she has wet/dirty nappies. She would happily sit in a wet nappy all day.
At my wits end… any suggestions???
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I work in a sen school, we work with parents who want their children potty trained. I advise with children with ASD, get them familiar with the toilet, making it a routine too, like after snack we go to the toilet. If she is non verbal then you can give her symbols (e.g toilet) and have the same symbol on the bathroom/toilet door, get her used to sitting on the toilet and and take it step by step even if she doesn’t do anything she’ll get used to it and then will start to associate the toilet with the need to wee/poop ♥️ hope this helps ofc I don’t know where she is on the spectrum but all kids with asd need routine and it does help, if she can talk then verbally tell her toilet or still use the symbols 💗xx
I also have worked in an SEN school & residential service. Toileting is one of the hardest things to train and will be a very long journey, if she is ever in a position to use the toilet. ASD is such a broad spectrum as we all know, but id say every 8 out of 10 children with ASD that I’ve worked with is unable to use the toilet and wore pads throughout their childhood and into adulthood. It all depends on how severe her ASD is, what communication difficult she has, like Leah said, symbols and PECS books are a god send when building routines and ‘now, next & then’ signs are also great so that children know what’s happening/ expected of them. If you regularly take her to the toilet like Leah said and encourage symbols it may help her to associate. Also a lot of praise if she does use the toilet.
It’s really difficult, but you do need guidance from your support pathway to know what to do/ try for her x
We trained my 2 year old daughter who has a severe speech disorder by just putting her on the toilet or potty every time she made a face and learnt to tell by her noises and facial expressions plus we used signs like patting her bottom (there are actually proper makaton ones). She wore pull ups so when it came to dealing with wet nappies it was a lot easier and quicker.
My eldest has asd and had no awareness. In the end nursery started taking him every 30 mins to an hour and put him in pants. It did take months so we were catching it rather than him knowing when to go. We had books, dvds, toilet balls, the iPad, stickers ect. I also brought some visuals from ERIC website.
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