OT: please help DS Potty training & speech delay

[ryanshana]

Hi thanks for anyone that can help me w/ this situation.

So DS is 31 months and we have had the potty out for a while...just to have it there when he was ready. Well the other day (3days ago) while I was changing his diaper he went over to the potty and went pee GO DS!!! Well yesterday and today we have been letting him run around nekkid and he has not had one accident

So here comes my question.

My DS has a speech delay. He is currently involved w/ early intervention and is getting help he has a lot more words then he started w/ but still not alot "unprompted". So 3 days ago I was trying to teach him the sign for potty I said potty did the sign said potty again....well little bugger just said potty! lol

So he does say potty but it is after the fact (yeas he just went again ) what do I do when he has clothes on. I really do not think that he is going to tell me. He hasn't he had he speech therapy yesterday and of course he had to be clothed and when she left I took his clothes off again and his diaper was wet.

also we are going to the world in Sept. How is that gonna work? Like I guess I should have a diaper on him cause I am thinking all the fun he isn't gonna want to take time out to pee ya know

Any suggestions any thoughts?

What about those pullups that have that cooling sensation? Do they work? I really appreciate any help. Thanks so much

 

[PiperPizzaz]

My Ds has speech delay too. He is 41 months and still isn't 100% potty trained. It was very difficult for me with his speech delay too. I use pull ups at night. If he has them on during the day he will just go in them instead of his potty. I tried the cooling pants but, they did nothing for us. Seems like most boys don't really care. In fact I think he thought it was nice and refreshing.

We do pretty well 'out' with big boy underwear on. If you take lots of potty breaks and make him go then he will probably be ok. We never wear pull ups out of the house and have yet to have a problem, knock on wood. He does usually have at least one accident a day but, always at home.

Good luck. I know it can be tough/frustrating. If you want to talk more just PM me.

 

[JaimeK]

We're in the midst of PTing our 34 month old. I found that pullups were just the same as diapers to our son, at least in the beginning. At home we would just wear pants (easiest and fastest for him to do on his own) or just nekkid time and accept that some accidents would happen. We had a small potty chair (Ikea sells them for about $2!) so he could go sit whenever he needed without help.
I think it's been about 2 months since we decided to have a nekkid weekend and really work on it and it's been better and better. We've got peeing at home/daycare/friends houses down and just yesterday a #2 in the potty. This was big excitement at our house

 

[ryanshana]

My Ds has speech delay too. He is 41 months and still isn't 100% potty trained. It was very difficult for me with his speech delay too. I use pull ups at night. If he has them on during the day he will just go in them instead of his potty. I tried the cooling pants but, they did nothing for us. Seems like most boys don't really care. In fact I think he thought it was nice and refreshing.

We do pretty well 'out' with big boy underwear on. If you take lots of potty breaks and make him go then he will probably be ok. We never wear pull ups out of the house and have yet to have a problem, knock on wood. He does usually have at least one accident a day but, always at home.

Good luck. I know it can be tough/frustrating. If you want to talk more just PM me.

It can be frustrating. It's kind of sad to me cause he is doing awesome w/ it and I think if he just had the words he'd be diaperless! I actually am running out of M&Ms cause he is doing so well lol

We're in the midst of PTing our 34 month old. I found that pullups were just the same as diapers to our son, at least in the beginning. At home we would just wear pants (easiest and fastest for him to do on his own) or just nekkid time and accept that some accidents would happen. We had a small potty chair (Ikea sells them for about $2!) so he could go sit whenever he needed without help.
I think it's been about 2 months since we decided to have a nekkid weekend and really work on it and it's been better and better. We've got peeing at home/daycare/friends houses down and just yesterday a #2 in the potty. This was big excitement at our house

YEAS for #2. I was just thinking I don't know if i'll be able to handle a #2 when it happens here's to hoping that DH is home when it does happen!

 

[mjkacmom]

When we did nakey-butt, the kids wouldn't tell me - they'd just go (ds6 stopped using the potty seat within 2 days and just hoisted himself on the toilet). After being 100% nakey-trained (for pee - poop took longer, and they just asked for a diaper - my dd would actually put a pullup on, poop, and come to me for a change), we graduated to pants, NO UNDERWEAR (which feels like a diaper). Dd6 went commando for 6 whole months!

We'd sometimes use pullups when out, but they rarely peed in them. My nephew has a pretty severe speech delay (apraxia), and my sister has no idea how she's going to pt him (he'll be 3 in 2 months).

 

[JamesMom]

I have a 43 month old (4 in July) who is in special ed classes for speech delay and sensory issues. I just got him in pull-ups this month! He is extremely attached to routines and hated being parted from his beloved diapers when i tried earlier. So I made a huge to-do about moving into 'big boy' pull-ups for the week leading up to when the diapers just diappeared. He accepted it ok, but won't sit only toilet but maybe every 2-3 days and produces nothing despite M&Ms, stickers, etc. He just doesn't care! 1 out of 3 poopy pull-ups he'll come to me at say 'poop' but most of the time he'll just wallow in it until we smell it. I figure he'll get it when he is good and ready and its not really worth the battle at the moment (screams, tantrums, kicking, etc.). Oh and naked butt won't work - he HAS TO have a pull up on -- same with underwear, he;ll just take the darn things off!
Good luck!

 

[SmallWorld71]

Just wanted to say that my oldest had a very severe speech delay and no trouble toilet training. (He was unable to say more than one syllable utterances when he was trained although he understood what others were saying.) I really don't think that a child needs speech to potty train. I am not trying to be sarcastic so I hope I don't come off that way but all he needs to be able to do is make motions to let you know he has to pee. If you think he is ready to train, get rid of the diapers, pull-ups etc. ASAP except for at night if he needs them. Many kids, especially those who are sensory seekers, don't mind the feeling at all when they are wet. Out of my 3, only the middle one didn't like wet diapers. (He also insisted on using napkins as a toddler too. LOL)

Good luck!

 

[Relish]

My Ds was ready to use the toilet very young, and certainly well before he had words to describe his need. He never did sign for anything so we just used a timing method. He could hold his pee around 2-3 hours at about that age, so we just made sure to offer him the potty about that often. We sent him with either parent when we went, or before we left home to go out, before leaving the store, etc.

For pooping, he actually did that in the toilet first. He was using a padded seat insert (comfy!) and we used it as reading time. He enjoyed the attention and we loved the results.

We did this on vacation, at home, and made sure grandparents and playdate parents were on board with offering also.

Once Ds knew that we would always give him a chance to use a toilet, he was completely dry daytime very quickly. He did have occasional naptime accidents but that isn't quite the same thing.

Good luck!

 

[PiperPizzaz]

Just wanted to say that my oldest had a very severe speech delay and no trouble toilet training. (He was unable to say more than one syllable utterances when he was trained although he understood what others were saying.) I really don't think that a child needs speech to potty train. I am not trying to be sarcastic so I hope I don't come off that way but all he needs to be able to do is make motions to let you know he has to pee. LOL)

Good luck!

TRUE but, my DS would never sign or motion for anything. He never pointed or grunted for things. He never asks me for anything. He has yet to ask me for a drink. He has gone and tried to make himself a drink or bring me the apple juice bottle to open for him. He is VERY independent. So, yes, it was an issue for us. The other thing is since you can't really have a conversation with him it is hard to know what he understands. I just wanted to say it doesn't have to be but, it can be a big part of the PT issue.

 

[WindyCityDisney]

In our case, doctors were concerned that DS's speech apraxia could be related to other apraxia as well. For those that don't know, a rough explanation of apraxia is that the body doesn't do what comes naturally and has to be programmed (through constant repetition) to learn things. I think speech is the most common, but our docs thought DS might not physically understand how to "hold" bowel movements.

Happy to say we've been potty trained for over a year now, but it was very hard to have a 4.5 year old that still wasn't poop trained.

We did pull ups at Disney a long time with no ill effects.

OP, feel free to PM me anytime.

 

[SmallWorld71]

TRUE but, my DS would never sign or motion for anything. He never pointed or grunted for things. He never asks me for anything. He has yet to ask me for a drink. He has gone and tried to make himself a drink or bring me the apple juice bottle to open for him. He is VERY independent. So, yes, it was an issue for us. The other thing is since you can't really have a conversation with him it is hard to know what he understands. I just wanted to say it doesn't have to be but, it can be a big part of the PT issue.

I guess that's the trickiest thing about toilet training, it's different for every kid. It certainly can be a very stressful time for many parents too and many blame themselves which they shouldn't. My nephew, whose speech is fine, has SID. He is the same age as my DS10. They were unable to train him until he was 5. It made for a lot of uncomfortable family moments for them to see DS reaching all these milestones ahead of DNephew when they were working so much harder. His SID definitely was a large part of the difficulty. On the other hand, I know some kids with SID who trained fairly easily.
Best of luck to all those who are toilet training their little ones right now; that's one aspect of having little ones that I don't miss.

 

[ryanshana]

Thanks for everyone's response...there are a couple of you that I wanted to PM but haven't gotten to it...DS PTing and other DS is sick lovely!

Just an update....DS has not had one accident NOT one at all!!!! And he even did a #2 in the potty. I think he is ready I just have to find a way to communicate! I have bought him real undies (I think pull ups will be a bad idea) and I think we will try in about a wk and 1/2 of no accidents and nekkidness LOL.

Again thanks for the help guys I knew I could count on ya!

 

[disneymomof2boyz]

My son also had a speech delay, but amazingly was potty-trianed by 2 and a half.
My opinion on pull-ups is not a good one. They did not help my boys in potty-training because the boys still felt as if they had a diaper on and ended up going potty in the pull-ups. My advice is straight underwear. I know...it's scary! I was freaked out, but my kids adjusted well, and after 1 or 2 accidents they got it. Underwear feels VERY different than diapers/pull-ups, and they adjusted so well that they never even used diapers or pull-ups during the night.

 

[Leajess99]

With my dd I would just ask her if she had to go. It stinks but it does help alot if you ask them or just take them very often. She was severely speech delayed as well.