After writing The Practical Guide to Toilet Training Your Child With Low Muscle Tone, I have been asked what was different about my book. There must be 100 books on potty training special needs kids. What did I do differently? Simple. I am an occupational therapist, so I have no choice but to use my 360 degree viewpoint to target all the skills needed to do the job. Seeing the path to independence in this way was second nature to me, but not to parents of kids with special needs. Time to offer some support!
The books I reviewed before I started writing were great, but every one lacked at least one important feature. If the authors were psychologists and teachers, they weren’t fully comprehending or directly addressing the sensory and motor aspects of a very physical skill. Oops.
OTs are always aware of the cognitive and social/behavioral components of activities of daily living, but we also have a solid background in physiology and neurology as well. That makes us your go-to folks for skills like toilet training. And that is a major reason why The Practical Guide is so helpful to the frustrated parents of children with SPD,autism, Down Syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, and a host of other diagnoses that result in delays or difficulties with muscle tone and potty training independence. It explains in detail how low tone creates sensory, motor, and social/behavioral problems, and how to address them. Knowledge is power, and knowledge leads to independence.
The other huge difference is that developing consistent sensory-motor-behavioral routines matter more for these kids. Tone isn’t a constant, as anyone with a child that has low tone knows all too well. Fatigue, illness, even a very warm day; these all make kids less stable and can even reduce their safety. Having a really solid routine makes movements easier to execute and more controlled when situations aren’t perfect. Kids with normal muscle tone can shift their behavior on the fly. They can quickly adjust and adapt movement in ways that children with low tone simply cannot. It isn’t a matter of being stubborn or lazy. Kids with low tone aren’t going to get the sensory feedback fast enough to adjust their motor output.
Good motor planning on a “bad day” occurs for these kids when they have well-practiced routines that support safe and smoothly executed movements. What makes the difference isn’t intelligence or attention. It is recalling a super-safe routine effortlessly. This is completely attainable for kids who have speech or cognitive issues as well as issue with low tone and instability. It may take them longer to learn the routine, but it pays them back with fewer accidents and fewer tears.
To learn more about my book, The Practical Guide to Toilet Training Your Child With Low Muscle Tone, visit my website, tranquil babies.com, or view it on Amazon.com!
