I just thought of two more "whys".
- It takes more time to change a diaper/pull-up, because you have to take off pants and shoes. Much quicker to run in and pee, and run out again.
- You might tie it in with a larger privacy issue, that his private parts are private, that big kids take care of their private parts themselves and don't show them to others except if necessary to parents, doctors, etc. I'm sure there are social stories about that issue.
[QUOTE=SharonSP]
Hello,
My name is Sharon and I am new to the group. My 6 year old son is waiting to be evaluated by the school psychologist. It's been 7 months since he started school and we are still waiting. It is very sore subject as I can't believe it takes this long, especially since the school Special Ed teacher told me to not waste my time and money with a private eval as they will not accept it. Meanwhile my son goes without help he needs.
I was wondering if toilet issues were common in children with ASD. My son holds his pee for hours on end (stomach gets swollen and hard and urine has an odor) and he refuses to stand up to pee and to learn how to clean himself. He'll sit on the toilet seat and yells "mom I'm done"and won't get up until someone cleans him, even if he has only peed. At school he won't even use the toilet. His teacher thinks it's because he doesn't like the sound when it flushes. I'm not so sure.
I didn't have a problem with him transitioning from pull-ups to the toliet. I think he enjoyed wearing his favorite cartoon charachter (briefs) on his derriere but do not understand why he refuses to clean himself. Is it because he is lazy or he doesn't like the thought of cleaning himself. I constantly try to teach him but he just pulls his hands away.
Has anyone else dealt with this issue? Rewards and stories do not work...
[/QUOTE]
Yes...I had this issue with my oldest son that has ADHD and OCB. He refused to wipe his own you know what and He ended up making me do it until he was about 9 years old. If I didn't do it for him he would scream in the bathroom because he knew that I would come and do it if he caused a fuss about it. Eventually he just got older and grew out of that. We still have issues with him on other things with maturity and he is 14. (still makes me tuck him in at night)
My ASD child will not come and get me most of the time but he is MESSY and doesn't do a good job at the wiping thing. Seems to be behind in that area as far as being able to manipulate his hands versus the toilet paper and where to wipe or something because he will get in all over his hands and then wipe it all over the toilet..yuck. He generally doesn't have BM's at school thank goodness because they would be calling me to come clean him up it's so bad...
Karrie
It sounds to me that what you're looking for is motivation for your son. If he doesn't see any reason to not use diapers, he has no motivation. I'm not entirely sure that any of the adult "why" reasons will work on him, but a social story is worth a try. You could use google image to try and find some visuals to go with the social story (would pictures of germs and diaper rash be too vivid?).
What motivated my kids was hip-hurrah's (I'd throw them up in the air and say "hip, hip hurrah!" when they used the potty). Here are two other alternative motivators:
A checklist: TEACCH has an interesting article on the subject of potty training. They pointed out that diapers are a well-established routine that many autistic children don't have any natural motivation to change. They pointed out that task completion is a powerful motivator for most people with autism, so their potty checklist might be helpful.
http://www.teacch.com/toilet.html
A game: I found a potty game (for girls). Basically, it's a sticker chart but in game format. I thought that if your son plays games and likes to win, that could be a motivation for him.
http://www.creativepottytraining.com/index.html
My autistic son was potty trained at 4-1/4 years, and while those couple months seemed to last forever, we did get through it. Good luck with everything.
I don't know if this will help you or not, but this is an online potty book. The toilet talks, so I don't know if that might make it scary or seem like a friend! You can always shut off the sound and read it with your own voice.
http://www.lil-fingers.com/potty/index.html
Here's a potty social story:
http://www.polyxo.com/socialstories/ss0004.html
I found that last link here, which seems to be a good description of one autism mom's experience. She includes links to visual aids/PECS:
http://www.epinions.com/content_4025262212
Good luck with everything.
Optimistic - That sandbox site was fun. Today my kids and I looked at all the sample pages and talked about the situations shown -- everything from feelings to personal space to Halloween.
Sarah was very difficult to potty train, lots of schedules~pictures sequences and rewards-treasure box/stickers, potty videos..ect...and it still was a bear to tackle for over a year! She was extremely controlling in that area and any attempt made it worse. I finally was just so exhausted from the constant prompting and all the tantrums of it to just give up..when it clicked for her~no magic pill my friend..she just wasn't ready till she was ready. I wouldn't of worked so hard and been so obsessed about it looking back because it didn't work at all. The "GOTTA GO" video I think worked more than anything..it is a musical of kids singing the praises of going potty..Sarah loved it:) Wish I had better advice..I do know this area is one I hate to revisit on because it was sooo hard. They finally get it but it is usually on their terms and not ours. Good luck:)You might find something on:Hello,
My name is Sharon and I am new to the group. My 6 year old son is waiting to be evaluated by the school psychologist. It's been 7 months since he started school and we are still waiting. It is very sore subject as I can't believe it takes this long, especially since the school Special Ed teacher told me to not waste my time and money with a private eval as they will not accept it. Meanwhile my son goes without help he needs.
I was wondering if toilet issues were common in children with ASD. My son holds his pee for hours on end (stomach gets swollen and hard and urine has an odor) and he refuses to stand up to pee and to learn how to clean himself. He'll sit on the toilet seat and yells "mom I'm done"and won't get up until someone cleans him, even if he has only peed. At school he won't even use the toilet. His teacher thinks it's because he doesn't like the sound when it flushes. I'm not so sure.
I didn't have a problem with him transitioning from pull-ups to the toliet. I think he enjoyed wearing his favorite cartoon charachter (briefs) on his derriere but do not understand why he refuses to clean himself. Is it because he is lazy or he doesn't like the thought of cleaning himself. I constantly try to teach him but he just pulls his hands away.
Has anyone else dealt with this issue? Rewards and stories do not work...
There is the Once Upon a Potty Video -- it's not much of a reason (other than being big) but my daughter really liked the song.