PECS and Sensor Potty Training – Moms with ASD Must Have!

My son is 2 and going to 3 and one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do is potty train him. After numerous attempts with musical urinals, toilet urinals, and food stimulation, we finally found a system to help you … PECS.

The PECS system is actually working in conjunction with a daily schedule of events so that he knows when I will ask him to go to the bathroom. Let me explain.

We have a PECS chart of a daily schedule and between each event I have a potty on the schedule so that he knows that after this, we use the potty (just to get it started). But let me go back a moment in my method …

First days: I tried to write down how many times he made the n. 1 and No. 2 in her diaper. We design the schedule for the photos and stick to the scheduled meal times so we can measure when I checked her diaper.

This took about 2 days to get a good chart; it took a couple more days just to get used to the schedule.

Next, I started incorporating the potty at these times that I traced and added it to the imaging schedule. My son already knew what the potty was, so I figured this wouldn’t be a problem. Boy, was I wrong. Every time he went to the chamber pot he would hold it. Then he held it until he put on his pull-up and did everything in the pull-up. How frustrating this was for me! I couldn’t let that stop me though, so I thought about Plan B. How about we eliminate the pull-ups and leave her butt bare all day? You know where this is going, right? Well he held it and held it until he had to go and this was not on the programmed chart when this happened. Yuck! what to do well?

Then I found this nifty invention: The Tinkle Toonz sensor saved the day! This is the sensor that goes to the Tinkle Toonz potty. In fact, you can buy the sensor and place it in your underwear so that by the time you decided to do the n. 1 start singing and then you can train them to sit on the potty.

Since my son insisted on going to the pull-up, I had to really potty train him, so:

Step 1: go back to meal times

Step 2 – No more pull-ups at home – just workout pants … we use all in one.

Step 3 – sensor in and we go according to schedule. If you decide to hold it that’s fine because the sensor will tell me when it starts.

Step 4: make sure the TV and anything else are turned down to a reasonable volume so you can hear the sensor

Step 5: Have a potty nearby, where you are, and have the bathroom door open and ready.

Make sure there is nothing in your way so you can run like the wind when they start to go. My son can start and stop, so I run like the wind and also take him to the potty when I have to go, in case that motivates him too.

Have your PECS potty card and PECS potty schedule in the bathroom and follow the steps while on schedule and while you’re away, in a rush, this will ensure your child fully understands. Make sure your schedule has times when your child will go to # 2. They usually go at the same time every day, the sensor will not detect this. After a while, my son thought it was fun to be taken to the bathroom or potty. Since he thinks it’s a game, now he tells me (in his own way) that it’s time to run and then comes to get me to run to the bathroom. Because I am happy and excited and we rejoice afterwards, he loves it. We still have accidents, but this is helping us tremendously.

If you are interested in the Tinkle Toonz urinal or sensor, you can find it at http://www.tinkletoonz.com/. They also have a really good article on autism and potty training at http://www.tinkletoonz.com/special_needs.html.

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