Potty Training Tips for a Non Verbal 3 Year Old Girl.

My son was a late talker, so to help with knowing what he was trying to communicate and ease the frustration, we taught him sign languate using the Baby Signs program. I also bought an American Sign Language dictoionary for additional words. This was wonderful!!!! It was so nice not to have him be so frustrated and he loved being able to tell us stuff. 3 years later, he is a very articulate kindergartner and you'd never now he had speech therapy. You could teach your daughter a few signs related to going potty and she could use them when she's ready. Just be consistent, she'll get it. Hope this helps. Dawn

M.,

You might be inspired by Toilet Training in Less Than a Day By Nathan H. Azrin, Ph.D. & Richard M. Foxx, Ph.D.

Their technique was based on their experiences with developmentally challenged children. It seems potty training is often the greatest many parents face, whether or not their children are challenged in some way.

My daughter (who is not challenged) was completely trained in less than a day when she was a little over a year. I bought the book after seeing the authors on some talk show of yesteryear, perhaps Phil Donohue?

Good Luck, and here are some useful links:

http://www.pottytrainingconcepts.com/Potty-Training-in-On...

http://www.grumblemagazine.com/articles/etc/toilettrain/i...

As a parent of an autistic child, you might find the following sites useful:

Feingold.org
Childrenscornerschool.com
Therecoverycenter.com
Yahoogroups.com
Autism research institute.com
Autism research institute.com
Autisminterventionsocal

http://www.childrenscornerschool.com/mb12nasalspray.htm

Wish you the very best!

I feel like a walking advertisement right now for potty watches! I just responded to 2 other requests with the same suggestion. My son was in-between FOREVER and we finally bought a potty watch from www.pottytrainingsolutions.com and he really picked up on when the music plays it's time to go potty. It gives him the sense of independence and choice (sometimes it's a power struggle because it's one of the main and only things they can control). It's automatic. You don't have to keep resetting it. It'll remind her to go without you pushing her and maybe she'll like it. Good luck! Just remember, it'll come!

Dawn mentioned signing - the Baby Signs Program has a Potty Training Kit out now that combines teaching signs with potty training. Maybe that's something you could do. I am doing it with my son and it's really fun. I've also heard good things about the potty watch.

My son didn't start using the potty until he was 3 1/2 - I wouldn't push it at all (which I know is expensive in terms of diapers & pull ups, but...). I would also put her back in diapers and tell her the pull ups cost too much money, which might motivate her to be more proactive about using the potty (who wants to wear diapers like a little sister!?!?! No way!!!). Also you might offer and incentive to motivate her as well - I got a little gumball machine for my son (and my middle daughter too used it). He got 1 gumball for peeing in the potty, and 2 for pooping. I had a little bowl of pennies next to it (out of reach of him until the deed was done) and it went over like a hot air balloon. There was some experimenting on the kids' parts when the "system" was implemented - 3 gumballs in an hour for "peeing" in the potty 3 times... it works itself out, eventually. It worked for me 2 times.

More importantly, is your daughter in speech therapy? I hate to sound an alarm bell, but she should definitely have more than 20 word at 3 years. I have a number of friends who have kids in speech therapy, and my best friend teaches at SDSU (masters degree in speech therapy). It's remarkable the progress that's made with these little guys. If you're interested in information/finding her some help, let me know and I can get some resources gathered for you.

Dont give up, you can use pictures that she can use to communicate with you , you can anticipate, the Regional Center can come and help you at your home, they are very valuable, use them...Good Luck...

I know exactly what you are going through! I had the same problem with my son. We started potty training him at 2 years and he also couldn't talk, we gave up after trying every trick in the book! He is 3 1/2 years old and now and the way he got potty trained was in day care! They encouraged him and I think peer pressure from classmates made him want to be potty trained, it was the best feeling ever when he came home saying "I'm a big boy now, i don't want my diaper anymore"! the amazing thing was it all happened the first week in pre-school. His speech also improved like you wouldn't imagine! I Would recommend that you atleast place her in a pre-school/daycare atleast a few days a week, so she could learn and asociate with children her age. For me it's been the best investment i've done with my son. Good luck!

Hi M.,

My son, Joshua (3years old) and my daughter, Victoria (2years old) have autism. Joshua is non-verbal and Victoria has began to speak words and to almost have recovered since we put them both on the Gluten & Casein Free Diet. Each child is so unique so we decided to take it a a step futher at a time and to do testing to see what was going on with them and why the diet did not have the same effect on Joshua. Those test revealed that Joshua (like most kids with autism) has inflamation in his brain and intestines along with other intestinal problems which are treatable. He is not fully potty trained as of yet because the treatment will cause him to have diarea at first. He attends special ed preschool and is brought to the potty every 20mins. So he does go there besides the occasional accidents. Once we are past the diarea stage of the treatment I will try to do the same thing that they do at school. However, I found TACANOW.ORG to be extremely helpful with support and information. On their website they have information on how to potty train kids with autism and I try to attend their support group every month to keep on top of all the new information. They sometimes even have a panel of mom and their 7+ year old kids with autism who have recovered. It brought me so much hope to hear these kids see how great they were doing. Now I am rambling. I hope I was some help. R.