Parents
are often overwhelmed by teaching their child
with autism to develop independent toileting
skills. Here are some tips and resources parents
may find helpful when toilet training their
child.
Change diapers
in the bathroom. Start out by making the
bathroom itself a cue for eliminating. Move
everything that has to do with toileting
into the bathroom.
Make the
bathroom a source of reinforcement. Let your
child see that when anyone uses the toilet
they get praised.
Create a task
analysis. Decide what steps you want your
child to learn and follow while using the
bathroom. For example:
Enter bathroom
Pull pants down
Sit on toilet
Eliminate in
toilet
Get toilet
paper
Wipe
Throw toilet
paper in toilet
Stand up
Pull up pants
Fasten pants
(if necessary)
Flush toilet
Reinforcement-
make sure your child knows what they get
when they are finished
** Remember to
consider the age of your child. Some younger
kids may need help on certain steps.
Incorporate a
visual schedule. This will help your child
to know what is expected of them. Visual
schedules also guide them through the
routine of using the bathroom. You can get
pictures for this from clip art or from PECS
or just take your own!
Put your child
in “big kid underwear/panties”. This will
allow them to feel when they have an
accident.
Put your child
on a toileting schedule. Set an alarm to go
off every X minutes to remind you and them
it is time to go to the bathroom. It is
good to start with smaller time increments
and then extend the time, for example, start
at a 15 minute schedule and work up to 60
minutes.
When the alarm
goes off tell you child “time to go potty/to
the bathroom/restroom” (or whatever you feel
most comfortable saying – just be
consistent). Physically prompt your child to
go into the bathroom and follow each step of
the task analysis. Be sure to point out the
visual schedule as you go along so they will
begin to associate each picture with a step
in toileting. DO NOT USE VERBAL PROMPTS-
they are much harder to fade and many kids
will become dependent on the verbal prompts.
Wait with your
child while they sit on the toilet and try
to eliminate. If they do eliminate in the
toilet, GO CRAZY! Let them know what a great
job they did and immediately give them their
favorite reinforcer.
Be consistent!
Make sure family members, teachers, and
babysitters know what to do when the alarm
goes off and make sure they are consistent!
Fade back the
physical prompts and differentially
reinforce more and more independent
responses.
If your child
has an accident, take them to the bathroom
and have them go through the steps.
Here are some books
we recommend that may help you as well:
