Make toilet training more fun!
Hello, everyone. I am honoured to write the blog and share my thoughts and experiences.
Before moving to the topic, I would like to introduce myself.
I am Chiaki from Japan. After graduating from high school, I went to university in the United States and received a bachelor’s degree. Then I moved to Canada and obtained an early childhood educators license.
My major at the university was applied behavioural analysis (ABA). I did nine months of practicum at an ABA-based daycare and was a research assistant for Ph.D. students. Therefore, I spent most of my junior and senior years at an ABA facility and a research laboratory.
I think many people have heard about ABA yet are not exactly sure what ABA is.
My understanding of ABA is that ABA focuses on a specific behaviour (target behaviour) to either improve or reduce the specific behaviour, by changing the environment and stimulus. The specific behaviour can be anything, such as hitting, picking up a toy and of course, toilet training. Since I am working at a preschool, many parents have shared with me, how hard their experience of toilet training, their children, is. I am not an expert on toilet training, yet, I would love to write about some ABA-based ideas and my experiences/thoughts about toilet training in order to try to make it enjoyable rather than stressful.
These are some tips for toilet training:
1. Make a daily schedule
When you feel your child is ready for toilet training, what you need to do first is make a daily toilet training schedule. Overall, there are two ways of making a toilet training schedule. First you can add a toilet training time into your child’s daily schedule, such as, after lunch, nap time, dinner and before going to the bed.
The other one is doing it in intervals e. g. take your child to the bathroom at 3-hour intervals. From my experience, if the child often has accidents, I would send him/her to the bathroom every 15 minutes. Then, if the child starts to have less accidents, I would increase the duration of the interval.
2. Gradually increase the number of times you would take a child to the bathroom
Even though you made a toilet training schedule, there is a high possibility that the child does not want to go to the bathroom and they may refuse to go there, at the designated times. To prevent this from happening, gradually increase the number of times you would go to the bathroom e. g. for the first week, take the child to the bathroom about 1-2 times every hour. Then, if the child does not refuse to go to the bathroom, take the child to the bathroom 3-5 times a day.
3. Praise!
For me, this is very important for toilet training. If the child succeeds, praise the child (positive reinforcement). When you praise the child, praise specific behaviour instead of just saying a good job e. g. “Great job, you made a wee-wee!” So that the child understands why she/he received the compliment from you. Most of the time, when I praise children after they have been successful with their toilet training, they seemed to feel proud of themselves and said, “Yes, I did!” Praising always helps to build the child’s self confidence which I believe is significant for them to become more independent.
4. Decorate the bathroom together with your child
Give one sticker every time the child succeeds with toilet training and ask the child to put it on the wall and decorate the bathroom and make the bathroom their special place. The purpose of this tip is to give additional praise to a child. For me, it helps a child to visually understand how many times they have been successful with their toilet training and if he/she makes the bathroom into a special place, he/she may more often willingly go to the bathroom.
5. Special treat
Give some special treats to the child when he/she succeeds with toilet training at certain times e. g. if the child succeeds 10 times, take the child to their favourite park. When you give a special treat, explain why the child received the special treat so that, the child can connect the toilet training with the special treat. Try to avoid giving food and sweets/candy as a treat, but rather an experience.
6. Gradually decrease the moments for praising, giving stickers and special treats
If you think the child is being successful with toilet training, what you can do is gradually decrease the number of times you give praise or stickers and/or special treats. For example, first, you praise the child every 2 times, he/she succeeds and every third time…..every fifth time and every tenth time until you do not need to praise, give stickers and/or special treats. This phase takes place in order for the child to become more independent and go to the bathroom naturally.
I believe there is no right or wrong way to help children with toilet training and that is why it can be a difficult process. My advice is just one of the many approaches to toilet training. I would be glad if you could keep in mind the many approaches and combine your way of toilet training and my advice to see if it can become more efficient and enjoyable for you and your child.
