Toilet training

Toilet training is one of the testing times for us as parents of children with autism and a confusing time for our children .

As we find out with autism everything is teaching them how to understand what is going on

before we teach them how to do it .

First we need to make sure your child is ready for toilet training some children it will take longer than others so look out for sings e.g. can gesture when they need to go with visual aid or social queues , or can sit on toilet .Make sure you get your child checked out by a doctor to make sure there are no other reasons for having problems going to the toilet .

When you know you child is ready for toilet training we need to take it step by step and the reward system works best .

You could give you child his or her favourite food or play their favourite game to doing things they enjoy  and have a rewards chart and reward stickers  .

Finding you child toilet routine or picking up when they need to go to the toilet can really help a quick pick up and run to the toilet is normally how is works out at the start but after a while your child understands why his or her need's to make there way to the toilet .

Visual aids will help they will tell your child know step by step what they need to do.

Another idea are social stories a book about a child needing to go to the toilet First Steps Autism will have them out soon .

Your child needs to be able to communicate with you that they need to go to the toilet so have a visual cue or other kinds of communication strategy for your child .Keeping your child on the toilet and them wanting to be on the toilet an be a challenge .

So posters with your childs favorite characters or dinosours ,or favorite movie posters .Books or magazines that your child may like. Try to make the environment fun even spraying a nice scent might relax them .Everytime your child goes into the toilet you could blow bubbles for them or sing them a song .You can also for boys put a ping pong ball in the toilet to train your child to have a better aim and they might find it fun.

Praising your child for using  the toilet can really help e.g. high fives ,telling them they are doing a great job or giving them a big hug or other types of praise you might give your child in a routine normal day .

Consistency is a must if you have a routine stick to it if its not working after a few months don't feel bad if it doesn't work the first time or if your child regress have a break and try a new strategy don't over stress your self out its a very important thing for our child to understand but do remember every child is going to be different and this stage wont last forever just keep trying .