What are the tips and tricks to successfully potty train a 3 year old non-verbal autistic girl?

Emalemaline
80

    3 answers

    • K
      ktisme
      50

      I’m not experienced with this scenario. I know that my kids did better when I described my experience (or how I imagined their experience might be): the potty is cold. I’m not used to using the bathroom for myself. I am learning to use my muscles to control my pee/poo. I am learning to listen to my body and respect the needs of my body to let go of what it’s done with. Taking time to go potty is an interruption. I don’t always want to stop, but taking care of my body in a timely way is important. As soon as I can, I want to only put pee or poo in the toilet. I might struggle, and I can practice and improve. I’m not stuck. This is new and uncomfortable and I’m not alone. I hear noises after I… Etc.

      • M
        mamaenjoyslife
        140

        I would wait till at least 4 years old. Children do better when they are ready! Since your girl already has a lot going on, I wouldn’t try to add in a new thing that’s so much of a change until she’s older. My kids aren’t autistic or non-verbal & they did much better when I let them decide when they were ready. Although she may not be able to decide when she’s ready, as someone who is already working harder at life, she will likely do better when a bit older 💜

        • jujubee
          160

          I had a non-verbal toddler and I tried to potty train him before he was ready because everyone else told me I should. If you try and things aren’t going well, it’s okay to stop and try again in a few months. Make it a very no pressure situation. You may also see success with going pee, but then they will refuse to poop on the potty. There was a year gap between my son going pee all by himself and when he finally went poop by himself. We ended up offering a brownie bite every time he went poop on the potty. I have zero regrets. 😄

          Welcome!

          BTFL is a community for parents to share trusted recommendations and advice. We’re happy you’re here! Our community is just getting started, so please send us your feedback.

          Latest updates

          • We now send you a notification when people upvote your answers or love your comments! Tap the bell at the top of your screen to see your recent notifications.

          • We’ve added a reputation score to give you credit for all your helpful answers and questions.

            Every time someone upvotes your answer or bookmarks your question, your reputation goes up by 10 points!

          • You can now upvote the answers you find the most helpful, and comment on questions to ask for more information or clarification.

          • Tap the bookmark icon next to a question to save your favorite discussions to read later. You can see your saved posts by tapping the bookmark at the top of the page.

            We’ll notify you if someone answers a question you’ve bookmarked.

          • To make it easier to see new questions, we’ve split the home page into two sections: new questions and popular discussions. Let us know what you think!

          • Notifications have landed! We’ll let you know whenever someone replies, comments, or mentions you.

          • You can now add questions of your own, and we’ve retired the Question of the Day. Search for your topic and then tap Ask the community.

          • We’ve redesigned our home page to make it easier to find recent discussions. Look for your favorite Question of the Day in the new list!

          • We’ve added your most requested feature: now you can tap the pencil icon next to past responses and comments to edit them.

          • You can now search past discussions! Just tap Search at the top of the page and start typing.