We’re taking a look at different ways to get family members involved in the potty training process. To read about dads, click HERE. Today, let’s talk about those older siblings.
1) Monkey see, monkey do: Toddlers are often in awe of their older siblings. Use this to your advantage. Continue reading
In the next few posts, we’ll offer you some quick tips to get different members of your family involved with the potty training process.
Let’s start with Daddy. Dads are great. They have a special way with their kids and a different roll than mom. But, the truth is, sometimes dads can be a little reluctant or unsure when it comes to potty training. Here are three quick tips to get them in on the action. Continue reading
Creation and Implementation
I recently sat down to a great phone chat with co-creator of Signing Time, Emilie Brown, and also listened to a radio interview Rachel Coleman did, to learn more about the creation of Potty Time. You can read the back-story to Signing Time HERE and the first installment of the interview with Emilie HERE.
What was the creation of Potty Time like?
As we talked about in PART TWO of this series, from the very beginning of Signing Time (even from year one!) many requests for a potty training show were rolling in. But Rachel freely admits that she felt resistant to teaching signs for bathroom words and singing about bathroom words.
However, once Rachel and Emilie realized there was a big need for a potty training approach that taught kids about their amazing bodies, and how they needed to listen to those bodies, Potty Time production was up and running.
The creative process of writing “Look at you Grow” and “Your Body is Amazing” were easy for Rachel. But she still just did not want to write a potty song! So, the obvious answer was to pass on the job to their youngest brother, Aaron (who incidentally is in on the family business and helps with music production and sound design.)
So Aaron is responsible for “Uh-oh, It’s an Accident” and “The Potty Dance”, writing the potty songs as only a little brother can do (and we are very glad he did!).
You can listen to a radio interview with Rachel on the creation of Potty Time HERE.
How do you see Potty Time being used at home?
I asked Emilie what their vision was for Potty Time once it was created. How would families from all walks of life use it? The first hope of course was that families would start watching the video, using the signs, and integrating it into their potty training routines.
More than that though, the hope was that every family would have the support they need to have potty training be a great experience – with whatever method they choose – with a tool to help kids be excited about potty training and be successful in that process.
What about using Potty Time in childcare settings?
To the Signing Time folks, the most effective trainers are the parents because they can be the models. It’s a challenge for someone who is not the parent to be able to navigate something like potty training. If they are using Potty Time, that framework of positive messages and support can really help them be aware of the important messages that kids need.
In daycare, there are often kids of all ages and developmental stages, so signing in general can be critical and very helpful. In addition, if the daycare uses media (like videos), Potty Time can make a difference for their kids more so than some shows that are purely for entertainment.
When it comes to preschools, most children are expected to be potty trained when they enroll. But this video isn’t just for kids who are starting to train. Even after potty training is more or less complete, you still have to deal with some of those bathroom things… like remembering to wash hands all the time! In this case, Potty Time can be an ongoing support to help newly potty-trained kids in a new environment.
Finally, it is Potty Time, after all! Let’s keep our sense of humor!
Just for fun, I asked Emilie if she had any funny stories to tell about the creation process. She had a few!
During production there were some pretty funny conversations about the products that would be used with Potty Time. The creation of these products is literally a fine art. So when something like the pee spot Hopkins makes in the board book isn’t quite the “right” yellow, a conversation has to happen. You can imagine the laughter from the illustrators, who probably weren’t quite accustomed to these sorts of… details in their work!
After Potty Time was created, the team hosted a preview party for all the kids who were involved in the show. There is a song in the video called “Stop and Go” (to the bathroom), and by the end of the song, half the young audience was all lined up to go to the bathroom. Proof that the concept works, I guess!
In Conclusion
I hope you’ve enjoyed this behind the scenes look at Potty Time creation and all the love and effort that went into the production process.
As Emilie said, “Who knew that potty training could be so fun and tender? And that potty training could be another opportunity to strengthen the relationship between parents and their kids?”
That, in essence, is the Potty Time goal.
Here’s an interesting blog post on how one working mom went about starting to potty train her little girl: From The Potty Training Trenches
She has some interesting thoughts at the end about a challenge of potty training when your child is at daycare:
“I’m worried that with nobody paying as close attention to her body language as we do at home, they will not know when she needs to go, and that Abby will forget about holding it or talking about going potty. They know we have begun potty training and when they are changing diapers and such they do have her sit on the potty, but she has yet to have any type of successes with them. I’m thinking we need to just ask them this week to talk to her throughout the day about the potty and encouraging her more than just once an hour.”
How have you approached potty training with other people who watch your child?
By Kim Fries, MA CCC-SLP
Kim Fries is a Signing Time Academy instructor as well as a speech therapist. Here she takes us through some tips and techniques for helping potty train a child with autism that she has successfully used and seen implemented over the years. Kim can be reached through her website at www.LittleHandsFL.com and via Facebook at www.facebook.com/LittleHandsFL
There has been a lot of interest on the Potty Time website, Facebook page, and here on the blog, about potty training children with special needs, especially children who have an Autism Spectrum diagnosis. As a mom of a child on the spectrum and as a pediatric speech therapist, I have worked with many children, families, and occupational therapists to address potty training. Here are a few tips, tricks and suggestions I have used, heard and learned. Continue reading
Does your child always stay dry throughout the day but when night comes she’s always wet? Fear not, she’s normal. It is a complicated process learning how to control your sphincter muscles and knowing when to nudge your brain to tell your tired slumbering body to get up and go to the bathroom. Continue reading
This is the second installment in a two-part series about potty training multiples. To see our first installment, click HERE. In our first article we talked about readiness and supplies. Now we move into working with the twins together… although not necessarily potty training together!
To compete or not to compete? Some parents of multiples have had great luck with using a little healthy peer pressure so that one twin is motivated to train by watching the other. However, this isn’t always the case. As with everything else in their lives, twins are very separate little human beings. It’s okay if one is ready and not the other and it’s okay to just let that slide. Continue reading
With the help of Professional Twin Mommy, Maggie Martin, (you should totally check out her blog!), we’ve put together a list of tips for potty training your multiples. These will be presented in a two-part installment.
Potty training by itself can feel like a pretty daunting task, but how about tackling it for two, three, or maybe even more toddlers at the same time? How do you even begin?
Well first, you have to remember that you have already managed to have them all and feed them all and change them all for a couple of years now… so you’re probably going to be better at this than you might think! Continue reading
Potty training one is an adventure. But two? Or three? Or more?
Here are two blogs from a great multiples site, Twinversity, to help you get started.
So you’ve started the potty training process and everything is going pretty well. And then a holiday rolls around, or it’s time for vacation, and you’ve got to take this show on the road! The idea of potty training while traveling can be quite daunting, but thanks to our Facebook community, we’ve compiled some great tips to help you make it through. Continue reading
