Potty training can be a very
difficult milestone for every child especially one with Autism Spectrum Disorders. We were seeing success with number 1, but number 2 needed work.
Families Helping Families gave us a stipend (Provided by
the Louisiana Developmental Disabilities Council) to attend
the Louisiana Autism Society State Conference in Baton
Rouge, Louisiana. At this conference, my husband and I were
able toattend a breakout session, “ABA applied to Feeding and Toileting Difficulties for Persons on the Autism
Spectrum.” After this, we were able to successfully potty train our
son, Nathan, at age 6.
We began by placing
pictures of chocolate cupcakes in his room and the bathroom and discussed that this is the
reward for going poop in the potty. While we continually
explained that he would only get the cupcake by using the potty,
after a few weeks there was still no success. Until one day,
Nathan pooped his pants for the last time. We had had it! We thought that maybe if we could enlist his older brother
to help by showing Nathan how things work he would understand. We asked Michael to have Nathan watch him poop in the potty, look in the potty to see the result,
receive praise, and then eat a chocolate cupcake. After watching
his brother, Nathan was very upset that he did not get one
too; he cried and screamed that he wanted a chocolate
cupcake. We told him to poop in the potty and he could have one. Nathan ran to the bathroom and squeezed out a very small poop and was given a whole chocolate cupcake. Since then we have had zero accidents and have faded the large
cupcake to a bite of chocolate. Thank you Families Helping Families.
