In this second part of the tips, I will share with you some other creative ideas used by parents to train their child. As each child is different, you never know which tip(s) will work best with your child until you try out. So, try as many of the tips as possible to see which work.
Here are some useful tips:
1. Clear Your Schedule for Potty/Toilet Training.
Select a date and time to begin the potty training when your routine is less likely to be disturbed. Make sure you are not pre-occupied too much with work, house chores and other issues. Start of a weekends such as Saturday morning or during a long public holiday are ideal to start.
2. Let Your Child Pick The Day.
A good way to get your child committed and engaged in the training is to let him choose the date to start using the potty. Give him a calendar and ask him to pick a date to learn how to use the potty. Cirle the date in bright color or paste a sticker over it to remind him that the “potty day” is almost here.
You should consider toilet training to be a learning experience that should never be forced. It is best to let your child help you determine when he is ready.
3. Train When Dry.
Avoid toilet training when your child is already wet. The deed has already been done so not a right time to train. Pick a time when you find your child clean and dry to offer a training opportunity.
If you find your child wet or dirty, only perform the changing procedure. Do the toilet training until the next check time according to your schedule chart.
4. Use Words To Describe Bodily Functions and Body Parts
Teach your child words that go along with what he is feeling when he urinates or has a bowel movement. If you use words such as “pee” and “poop”, these will be the words that he will most likely use as well. Teach them these words matter-of-factly just like other vocabs he needs to learn.
By teaching these words early, you will help your child to express himself and make the whole training a lot easier.
5. Be The Role Model Yourself.
Let your child watch you when you go to the bathroom is one of the best ways to learn by imitation. You are an important role model and allowing him to see you use the toilet correctly will help him understand the whole process better and understand what it is for.
6. Consult Physician
For some severe cases of handicaps, before the start of training, the child’s phyisician should be consulted first inorder to make suer that there are no medical conditions that would make training inadvisable.
7. Retention and Elimination
Toilet training is made up of 2 basic skills: retention and elimination. Example of retention is the ability to retain urine for extended periods of time. Elimination is the getting rid of waste in our body. The goal of your training is to strengthen retention while making elimination to occur more regularly in the correct place (toilet bowl or potty).
8. Teach Focus on Elimination
While your child is doing his buisness, monitor for elmination but do not engage in conversation. Do not offer books or toys that will distract him. Something that will calm him down is okay but not something that he will distract him. You want to teach your child to focus on the task at hand which is elimination.
9. Incremental Sit
Assist your child to learn to sit quietly and still on the toilet for up to 5 minutes without distraction. Increase the time for sitting down in small increment such as 30 secs to the required time he get the elimination done.
10. No extra movement
You should try to monitor elimination without having to move your child about to look into the toilet bowl or potty. If you do, it may interrupt the elimination process. Some toilet bowl or potty may obstruct observation so you need to work around it such as use your ear to listen or ask your child to sit with legs slightly spread.
Here is a video to share on potty training
Please share with us your own experience or tips if you have any.
