Helping all children become happy learners
How do you Get Your six-year-old to use the toilet?
Introduction
Though most children are toilet trained by the age of 4 it is still relatively common for school children to be still experiencing bed wetting at night. A few children will still be experiencing occasional daytime bladder control issues, particularly in the first year or two of school. One or two children may start school requiring daytime nappies (diapers) but it is unusual for this to persist unless there are other factors. These can include specific physical or medical reasons that contribute to bladder or bowel difficulties or it can be a result of other behavioural or psychological needs. For example, some children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder can have extreme anxieties and even phobias about toiletting. Children with Social Anxiety Disorder may also be fearful of using public and school toilets. However, many children, particularly girls, avoid school toilets unless totally desperate.
Strategies
Cleaning Themselves
Give your child more responsibility for cleaning themselves up after using a nappy (diaper). It is important that the child learns to self-manage this unpleasant task. It then in turn makes using the toilet a more desirable choice. Avoid creating anxieties over touching faeces. Encourage hand washing after passing motions but try not to worry about accidental or purposeful contamination during cleaning process. Discuss each poo matter-of-factly.
Sensory Needs
Establish whether your child has any sensory needs or anxieties about using the toilet. E.g. the noise of the flush; a fear of losing something down the toilet; the smells; the seat feeling cold or hard. It may be possible to try and minimise these sensory experiences if an issue. E.g. using air freshener to reduce unpleasant smells, playing music to drown out noises and using toilet covers to reduce any concern over the toilet seat.
Happy Pictures
Make the toilet a friendly place by placing happy pictures of your child in there. They could also have a small picture of themselves doing a favourite activity which they can look at.
Perfect toilet
Get your child to draw a picture of their perfect toilet/bathroom. Encourage them to talk about the features they have put in and use questioning to establish the reasons for their choices.
Reward Systems
Use a reward chart to encourage use of the toilet.
Toilet toys
Encourage your child to sit on the toilet playing with fiddle toys or playing electronic games.
Keep a record of bowel movements
Keep a diary of when your child passes a motion to see if there is a pattern to this. If there is, predict when your child will next need to defecate and encourage them to be sat on the toilet at the appropriate time.
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