Hi,
I'm back with another couple of questions if that's ok?
We took our son to a developmental paediatrician about a week ago, & have finally got an "official" diagnosis of ASD. I guess that's what drs diagnose when children are too young to specify exactly where they are on the spectrum.
My actual question is this; is toilet training a preschooler with ASD any different than with a NT child?
If so, does anyone have any suggestions?
On a slightly bigger topic, can anyone tell me from a parental or personal view what it was like to move house? We are moving in 2 weeks and I know NT kids can have issues. What about children on the Autistic Spectrum?
Our son has always lived in our current home.
I would be immensely patient with potty training an ASD child, and expect good days and bad days.
Moving house is very stressful indeed, so avoid any potty training that coincides with that.
And good luck! :smile:
He will almost certainly have much more problems with moving house than an NT kid. Security and similarity are so important.
We moved lots when I was little because of my dad's job, and it always had a profound affect on me. Giving lots of love and reassurance is vital (and difficult, because you're stressed and pre-occupied by the move yourself). Trying to make the bedroom similar will also help. Have lots of transitional objects (teddies, familiar bedding etc) available, not packed away in the boxes. And expect there to be problems. Basically, I felt (and still feel when we move) that my identity had been ripped away, and I didn't know who I was any more.
One thing in particular I used to do when we moved house was sleepwalk to places as they were in the old house. One time, dad heard me come downstairs and start to go to the loo where the downstairs toilet had been. Only problem was, that position in the new house was the chair by the telephone table! Luckily he got to me in time, realised I was asleep, and took me upstairs to the new toilet then back to bed. He told me about it in the morning!
Nothing we tried with our AS daughter worked (we did not know she was AS at the time)...finally we just took off all the pressure and she eventually potty trained herself at age 3.5. She has an extremely stubborn personality, very independent. She also gets very attached to things and doesn't like change. It had to be entirely her idea, not ours, before she would even consider giving up diapers.
We haven't moved house much, and she seemed fine when we did, so I can't help there.
Hi oruamo5, my son is ASD (we think) and he has been fully toilet trained since age 2 (day and night). I thought it was pretty easy with him, it took about 2 weeks for him to get the drift and the day he was toilet trained, he didn't pee at night in his night nappy so I took it away after a few weeks as it was pointless to waste dry nappies. In 10 months he has had maybe 5 little accidents.
This is how we did it:
When he turned 2 I took away the nappies and put undies on him. I took him to the toilet every 15 minutes (unless he did a pee, then it was 2 hours later) and made him sit. After a week of not "getting it", one day he just 'went' in the toilet after I sat him down (used toddler toilet seat). I cheered and clapped so much and he got so excited and knew he was doing what I wanted him to do. The next week was half accidents/half in the toilet. The 3rd week he totally understood what it's all about and went no problem. The first 2 weeks were incredibly draining, but worthwile. We used blowing bubbles in the toilet so he wouldn't jump off or run away.
Hope that helps. :idea:
By the way, he was totally non-verbal at 2, only started using single words at 2 and 6 months.
Yes, I think it is important to get rid of the nappies during the day because some kids will quite happily keep using nappies till they're school age.
If they are in little pants, it's easier for them to take them down to sit on the potty or toilet and they are more likely to notice that they're wet or dirty and not like it.
I think it wouldn't work too well to try and potty train a child around the same time as moving house, particularly with an autistic child who will usually have more issues with adjustment but perhaps you could start thinking about the little pants after a couple of months or so.
Hi,
I'm back with another couple of questions if that's ok?
We took our son to a developmental paediatrician about a week ago, & have finally got an "official" diagnosis of ASD. I guess that's what drs diagnose when children are too young to specify exactly where they are on the spectrum.
My actual question is this; is toilet training a preschooler with ASD any different than with a NT child?
If so, does anyone have any suggestions?
On a slightly bigger topic, can anyone tell me from a parental or personal view what it was like to move house? We are moving in 2 weeks and I know NT kids can have issues. What about children on the Autistic Spectrum?
Our son has always lived in our current home.
My 6 year old son was diagnosed at the age of 3 (ASD).
I think that all kids will use to toilet when they're ready :wink:
When I began toilet training my 6 year old (he was 5 at the time),
it took him 2 weeks. I was extremely patient about it and he quickly decided to go all on his own.
It took my 8 year old son (whom is NT) 3 months...
As for moving... My kids and I just moved into a mill house duplex
this past summer and I was so worried because we had been
living with my mother for 2 1/2 years. They actually seem to like
this house (perhaps even more than I do! hah!) The change
didn't seem to to have a negative effect at all, which is a big relief :smile:
I am a bit worried about next summer. Ive been a single parent
for 8 years.We will be moving in with my boyfriend.He lives in another state that has much
better resources than where we live now. My kids absolutely adore
my boyfriend, as he also adores them :grin:
I guess, Im more worried about how much of a change it will
be. We live in the foothils now and my boyfriend lives in the
mountains. Maybe it's more of a feeling of anxiety...
Anxiety, and the fact that I loath moving! hehe!
i was four when i was finally potty trained, but i never ever had an accident since, not a single one. Ok i might have wet the bed once, but still that doesnt really count as an actual accident because it was at night... anyways.....
well my sister was the same way, except she was past four... ok i know this sounds horrible but i was only 8 or 9 at the time, she peed or something in her pants as soon as she refused to use the toilet... so i slapped her in the face and screamed "whats wrong with you!" and it actually worked. But i got in trouble.
I don't think you can always rely on a child training themselves. They probably need a bit of a push if they're getting close to school age and they're certainly too big to be wearing nappies by then (unless they've got a really bad disability)..
Mum said I was trained by about 2 1/2 (but she thought that was very slow) but was scared to sit on the toilet till I was older than that (don't think they had toddler seats in those days).