Potty Training Academy

Potty training is an exciting time for all involved! The parents and providers are excited to share a new milestone achievement and learners are happy to show you how much they've grown. This is something to celebrate at every turn. To start you want to make sure that you learner can communicate that they need to be changed or have gone. This shows that they know when the body is doing something! This is a HUGE part of potty training and can be the most challenging if your learner cannot communicate. This first step is also the hardest to spot if your learner is nonverbal and doesn't do sign.

Once you have gotten that down start a potty time routine that is not overwhelming to remember and achieve for both parties. Oaktown daycare uses timers to help achieve this, Alexa or Google home is help with this! We add diapers during nap and nighttime. We recommend doing this for 21-30 days before removing diapers and adding underwear.

Make this a celebration and let your learner shop and pick the underwear. Buy multiple pairs (10) because they will have accidents and you will be disposing them in the trash (do this instead of cleaning this is part of the process). This helps to feel good about their new change and celebrate the big kid they have become.

When they have an accident like pee they will have to change and help wash themselves to understand the task of peeing on themselves and help teach self-care. When they poop throw out the underwear, stating "too hard to clean". This helps your learner understand the value of the item bought and that poop results in loss of the item. This will help curve the behavior of pooping on themselves over time, as peeing is normal first. Pooping may take a little encouragement. This is a behavioral strategy in psychology that has shown to work. This helps the student to feel confident and understand the bathroom routine you have established as well as cleaning habits.

Rewarding the student EVERY time with a high five for telling you when they must go. Help them in the bathroom by repeating the steps, giving positive reinforcement along the way. If you have space add the steps in the bathroom like:

1. Pulling down pants and underwear

2. Sitting on the pot

3. Wiping themselves

4. Pulling up pants and underwear

5. Washing hands and singing bathroom song

Add a sticker of complication on their bathroom chart! Do this with your learner for at least 60 days, then start to slowly wean back help with constant positive reinforcements in place until they feel self-sufficient enough to handle bathroom on their own with supervision.