A New Development

A new chapter has begun in our household -- we have entered the world of Potty Training an Autistic Child.

We learned a couple of weeks ago (both from her teachers and from our own observations) that Rachel is showing some early signs of being ready for potty training. But the school isn't planning on moving forward with it until the start of the next school year because we are getting close to the end of the school year and the time away from school will potentially cause issues (but the teacher informed me that they use techniques developed by Drs. Foxx and Azrin [http://www.nationalautismresources.com/azandfototri.html] should we want to proceed on our own). We haven't gone THAT far, but we will grab opportunities when they present themselves.

Well, last night, we were giving the kids "naked time" prior to dressing them for bed. This is something we used to do with Daniel, before HE was trained and it was a time that he thoroughly enjoyed, and we thought Rachel and Simon would like it too. Rachel squatted down and her Dad and I looked at each other and said, POTTY, and Kevin brought her to the bathroom. She would willingly sit on the toilet, but only for brief periods (20-30 seconds, tops). But she clearly needed to do something. Then Kevin heard the "tinkle" and the "plop" and we celebrated her success. This didn't stop her from being proud of the fact that she can make "water" on the carpet, but it was definitely a step in the right direction.

Tonight, after her bath, Rachel once again took that squat position and I asked her if she needed to go "potty". Tonight, she jumped up and ran into the bathroom shouting "Go Potty!!!!". Since I was busy dressing Simon, once again, Kevin went into the bathroom and again heard the tinkle. We are definitely in the early stages. She doesn't anticipate and I don't think she's truly "ready", but I will soon be looking up this technique and we will probably be starting over the next few weeks.