If your special needs child isn’t experiencing a medical reason for incontinence (infection, blockage, neurological impairment) then you might be facing one of these three common roadblocks to total training success: Your child has limited or incomplete interoceptive awareness. What is interoception? It is the ability to sense and interpret internal cues. The distention of…… Continue reading Not Making It To the Potty In Time? Three Reasons Why Special Needs Kids Have Accidents
Category: toilet training
Toilet Training For Preschool And Stuck in Neutral? Here’s Why…..
Many of my clients are in a rush to get their kid trained in the next few weeks for school. They have been making some headway over the summer, but things can stall out half-way through. Here are some common reasons (but probably not all of them) why kids hit a plateau: They lose that…… Continue reading Toilet Training For Preschool And Stuck in Neutral? Here’s Why…..
Potty Training Boys: Do You Teach Standing Up Or Sitting Down?
Training children for bladder control before bowel control is often easier for quite a few reasons: More frequent bathroom trips = more opportunities for success, digestion and diet issues don’t stall success, and urination is usually a painless, phobia-free, and quick experience. In general, families that hire me as a consultant are encouraged to…… Continue reading Potty Training Boys: Do You Teach Standing Up Or Sitting Down?
How To Teach Your Child To Wipe “Back There”
Potty training is a process. For most kids, the final frontier is managing bowel movements. Compared to learning to pee into the toilet, little kids are often more stressed by bowel movements and have less opportunities to practice. Most children don’t have more than one BM per day, but they urinate many times per day.…… Continue reading How To Teach Your Child To Wipe “Back There”
The Difference Between Special Needs and Typical Potty Training Approaches: Address Sensory/Behavioral Issues and Use Consistent Routines
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…… Continue reading The Difference Between Special Needs and Typical Potty Training Approaches: Address Sensory/Behavioral Issues and Use Consistent Routines
Teach Kids With Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Or Low Tone: Don’t Hold It In!
People who have read my blog are aware that I wrote a book on toilet training kids with low muscle tone, The Practical Guide to Toilet Training Your Child With Low Muscle Tone. Children that have problems with muscle tone or connective tissue integrity (or both) risk current and future issues with incontinence and UITs…… Continue reading Teach Kids With Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Or Low Tone: Don’t Hold It In!
Low Tone and Toilet Training: Learning to Hold It In Long Enough to Make It to The Potty
If your child can’t stay dry at night after 5, or can’t make it to the potty on time, there are a number of things that could be going wrong. I won’t list them all, but your pediatrician may send you to a pediatric urologist to evaluate whether there are any functional (kidney issues,…… Continue reading Low Tone and Toilet Training: Learning to Hold It In Long Enough to Make It to The Potty
Why is Staying Dry at Night So Challenging For Some Children?
I have received a few questions on this subject since publishing my e-book, The Practical Guide to Toilet Training Your Child With Low Muscle Tone. Parents are wondering how to expand daytime success through the night. Here is what I know about getting through the night high and dry: it is as much a physical…… Continue reading Why is Staying Dry at Night So Challenging For Some Children?
Toilet Training Older Kids: Equipment Matters as Much as Approach
Is potty training after the toddler years different? Yes, and no. Here is what you need to consider when you are looking at the equipment for an older child that is still in a diaper or a pull-up. Whether they have language or not, whether they have rigid or stereotyped behaviors or not, your set-up…… Continue reading Toilet Training Older Kids: Equipment Matters as Much as Approach
Piddlers Make Potty Training Fun!
I laughed out loud the first time I saw a toddler pee onto one of these circles. Then he asked for more juice so that he could come back later and try again! Piddlers aren’t a new concept. Parents have been tossing cereal circles into a potty for “aiming practice” for a long time. These…… Continue reading Piddlers Make Potty Training Fun!
The Practical Guide to Toilet Training Your Child With Low Muscle Tone: Potty Training Help Has Arrived!
My most popular post, Why Low Muscle Tone Creates More Toilet Training Struggles for Toddlers (and Parents!) inspired me to write a manual to help parents with potty training. There was nothing in books or online that really helped families, just a few lines about being patient and…… Continue reading The Practical Guide to Toilet Training Your Child With Low Muscle Tone: Potty Training Help Has Arrived!
The Ten Most Common Mistakes Parents Make During Toilet Training
Since writing The Practical Guide To Toilet Training Your Child With Low Muscle Tone, I have been asked for a list of missteps that happen on the way to success. Here they are: Ignoring their own readiness issues. Parents who are unaware of their own lack of readiness will not be able to be the…… Continue reading The Ten Most Common Mistakes Parents Make During Toilet Training
Waiting for Toilet Training Readiness? Create It Instead!
I just watched a therapist on YouTube tell parents how to look for toilet training readiness signs. From her limited description, you would have a better chance of finding truffles in France! The signs of readiness in special needs children can be subtle, so do not ignore moves such as going behind the…… Continue reading Waiting for Toilet Training Readiness? Create It Instead!
Can You Toilet Train a Non-Verbal Child?
Parents of non-verbal children often delay toilet training, assuming that these kids need more communication skills to be successful. I disagree. I think children and their parents need other skills more. Here are my thoughts about what really matters for these kids: Their parents need excellent observation skills. A child that cannot easily communicate their…… Continue reading Can You Toilet Train a Non-Verbal Child?
Toilet Training Has It’s Costs: Don’t Be Shocked
In speaking with families about their worries in anticipation of toilet training, one of the issues that rarely comes up are it’s costs. Sure, everyone laughs about the vacation they will take when they no longer buy diapers or pull-ups. Those huge boxes from Costco don’t come cheap. But there are costs during the…… Continue reading Toilet Training Has It’s Costs: Don’t Be Shocked
Is Slow Progress In Toilet Training A Failure?
Children that are slow to learn independent toileting come in many flavors. There are the children who resist training; they just don’t want to sit on the potty and rewards haven’t made them excited to train. Then there are the kids who develop fear of painful bowel movements. And also the children with language and/or…… Continue reading Is Slow Progress In Toilet Training A Failure?
Why Do Some Kids With ASD and SPD Refuse Toilet Training?
Toilet training is one of the few self-care skills that fall primarily on special needs parents. Speech therapists, feeding therapists, occupational therapists and ABA instructors all do assessments and create plans. Hints on toilet training from your therapy team are often very helpful, but “the boots on the ground” are yours as a parent. You…… Continue reading Why Do Some Kids With ASD and SPD Refuse Toilet Training?
Low Tone and Constipation: Why This Issue Delays Toilet Training Progress
Kids with low tone and sensory processing disorders are not the only children who struggle with constipation, but it is more common for them. The reasons are many: low abdominal and oral tone, less use of available musculature because they use compensatory sitting and standing (the schlump, the lean, the swayback) patterns, and even food…… Continue reading Low Tone and Constipation: Why This Issue Delays Toilet Training Progress
Low Tone and Toilet Training: How Your Child’s Therapists Can Help You
Over the years as an occupational therapist, I have been giving parents hints here and there. Writing my e-book this fall, and preparing an e-course (coming soon) to support families makes me realize that some clients did not ask me very many questions while they were toilet training their child. So….Are there aspects of therapy…… Continue reading Low Tone and Toilet Training: How Your Child’s Therapists Can Help You
Low Tone and Toilet Training: What You Can Learn From Elimination Communication Theory
Yes, those folks who hold a 6 month-old over the toilet and let her defecate directly into the potty, not into a Pamper. Elimination Communication (EC) has committed fans, as well as people who think it is both useless and even punishing to kids. I am not taking sides here, but there is one thing…… Continue reading Low Tone and Toilet Training: What You Can Learn From Elimination Communication Theory