Potty Training and Autism: Tips and Techniques

By Kim Fries, MA CCC-SLP

Kim Fries

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

Night Time Accidents

 

Potty Time tips for night training

By Sue Rouillard, MEd

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

Funny Stories from Facebook: Part Two

Thanks to our Facebook fans for sharing their hilarious potty training moments!

I think our funniest was the first time my daughter pooped on the potty. She looked at it and was shocked. She said,  “What’s that? Where did it come from?”  (Jo K.)

Baby Hopkins from Potty TimeWhile my oldest son was potty-training he had a poop accident. He didn’t want everyone to know so he tried to vacuum it up. My vacuum cleaner was sooo nasty and so was the carpet where he tried to “clean” it up from. (Esmi M.)

Continue reading

Funny Stories from Facebook: Part One

Baby Alex from Potty TimeRecently we asked our Facebook community to share their funniest potty training stories and got some great ones. Here is the first installment of funny stories, with more to come later this week. Enjoy!

My son went potty in the middle of the night the other day. After going Potty he asked “Call Rachel! No Rachel sleeping, call in the morning!” (Mickelle G.)

Last year I was letting my daughter, probably around 18-20 months, go naked. I thought keeping her off the carpet would keep any mess from getting out of hand. Then I looked over and saw her sitting on the heater vent in the floor. Just then the heat came on, her eyes got big, and by the time I got to her, sure enough she had peed into the register! (Clara W.) Continue reading

Training or Teaching?

By Colleen Brunetti, MEd

Colleen Brunetti, Potty Time Specialist

I love my job here at Potty Time! I get to interact with a couple thousand people a day on a topic I love. Not so much the topic of potty training, although that is of course pretty interesting stuff. More so though, we are really talking about child development and positive parenting approaches, two topics near and dear to me as both an educator and a mom.

Sometimes people will post something on our Facebook page that really challenges me (in a good way) or gets me thinking about these topics from a new perspective. I decided to do a little writing on the topic of how we as a society tend to approach potty training and published it on Examiner.com.

I hope you enjoy: Examiner Article: Training or Teaching

Potty Training Multiples: Part Two

Potty training twins with Potty Time!By Colleen Brunetti, MEd

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

10 Tips for Night Training

Potty Time

By Sue Rouillard, MEd

So the daytime potty training is going well. You’ve worked your way from diapers, maybe to pull-ups, and now to undies, and those puddles on the floor are becoming a distant memory. Congratulations!! It’s been a month or more without any daytime accidents and you wish potty training was done and you could forget about it. You’re almost there.

Like daytime training, there’s no set timeline on how soon you’ll get through nighttime training, but let’s see if I can make it just a bit easier for you.

Ten Tips for Night Time Toilet Training

1) Continue with your consistent daytime expectations. Good daytime routines pave the way for successful nighttime routines! Continue reading

Potty Training Multiples: Part One

By Colleen Brunetti, MEd

Potty Time for twins!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 Twins (from Twinversity)

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.

PART ONE

PART TWO

Potty Training While Traveling

By Colleen Brunetti, MEd

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