Potty training can be a difficult milestone to achieve with any child. But with a neuro-normal child ( what we call non ASD kids) it can usually be achieved through the traditional methods of rewards, sticker charts, and persistence usually within a couple of weeks to a month. I have been potty training David for a year and a half. . .
Potty training can begin anywhere from 11/2 years to 3 years depending on your child's readiness. That is a key word for parents of Autistic children. Although David is chronologically 4 1/2 years his mental development is around 36 months. I read multiple books and articles on potty training and thought I was ready to go. Waiting until David was at the right mental age was one of the keys to his success.
The problem with using traditional methods is that rewards work for neuro-normal children because they feel a sense of pride and accomplishments and ASD children often don't feel pleasure from pleasing their parents or teachers. While children are taught that potty training time is exciting, new, and grown-up it can be daunting and over-stimulating for ASD children. The bright lights, cold seat, the sensation of eliminating themselves can just be a nightmare. They might have difficulty understanding the logic behind the need to go. They are resistance to change and may become very upset if their is an interruption to their routine.
David would go occasionally over the past year if the timing happened to be right and the moon and stars were aligned properly! He really regressed over the summer when school got out because he didn't have the social pressure of going like he does at preschool. We had David at a private preschool for his 2 year old class. They wouldn't let him enroll in the 3 yr. old class because he wasn't potty trained. At that time we didn't have an Autistic diagnosis only the Sensory Processing Disorder and Language disorder. So I went through the county and had David enrolled in a special-ed preschool for 3 year old at a local elementary school. He really flourished there and they would encourage him to go to the bathroom at school. He would go occasionally and seemed to make progress. We signed him up for their 4 year old program too. His teacher, Mrs. Jeanne, an angel from God, informed me that David was going all the time in class. He was 100% potty trained at school, yet he couldn't go for me at all at home.
We worked for several months in ABA therapy and even signed him up to be on the waiting list at the Emory Autism Center. They have a unique potty training program that's really intensive for ASD kids. Its an intensive all day session, sometimes two, where you drop of your kid and pick him up potty trained. By intense I mean INTENSE. They only accept eight children at a time and its is an eight month long waiting list. I wanted to have David trained by the time he was in kindergarten and wasn't sure we could wait that long. We had to discover what was the missing link from school to the house.
Then, like the heavens parted and a beacon of light was shining down, we discovered the Peter Potty training urinal. Mrs. Jeanne has baby urinals at school and we thought, maybe, just maybe if we got a urinal he would go at home.....SUCCESS!! David has been completely diaper free for about three weeks!! Even at night!!!!!! The missing link was recreating the environment that he was comfortable going in.
Now we have the pleasure of buying really super cute boys underwear and stopping every twelve minutes to go potty at various stores and wooded areas!
I am so proud of David for achieving this HUGE milestone in his life and just blessed to have a super team of experts at my disposal who work so hard with him.
