Autism Support Group

I've been trying to potty train my son for over a year now. He will be 4 next month! When I tell him its time to potty, he screams at me and runs to the bathroom. He has no problem sitting on the toilet for 10, 15, sometomes 20 minutes. The problem is that he just sits there with no concept of what to do and I don't know how to explain to him that he needs to pee and poop there. I'm so frustrated. Can anyone help? Any advice is better than none.

I know exactly what you are going through. My son also has autism and is now 9. He was almost 8 by the time we got him fully potty trained. We worked on it for over 2 years. I remember thinking that if I had to change another pair of poopie underwear I would scream! What I learned is to just be consistent. Whatever your doing just takes a lot of time and patients. Our kids learn differently than other kids, so it takes time to click. Hopefully you and the school are on the same page, and they are also taking him to the toilet on a schedule. For my son he started to pee in the toilet first, and received a lot of praise for it, it was almost a year later that he would use the toilet to poop. Maybe hes not developmentally ready, but that is a determination you have to make. Good Luck and hang in there, it will happen, have faith.

hi hun, my son also wasnt fully potty trained until he was nearly six ( this includes bedwetting too). what i tried

social stories (I hope that you know what these are

role play eg get a doll and role play what you do in the toilet, actually taking the doll to the toilet

PECS story, where you use PECS symbols to say what goes in the toilet

video modelling if you could find a vid that outlines this

peers:there is a lot of things that our kids learn from other kids

oh and books, there are a few books out there (amazon) which shows you what other strategies you could use

the only thing that eventually worked for me at age 7 and a half i might add

( dx severe autism) was when i got so fed up with diapers that i just said im never buying another diaper and started putting him in regular clothes and it worked like a charm in no time flat like 1 month he was toilet trained. also they have bm holding issues if this applies to your son then read the post -BM 's what works - for a few tips.

i should add it may take some time yet for some more comprehension to set in also.