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First, take your child with you to use
the toilet and encourage him to do the flushing. Put a potty chair in
the bathroom and when you use the toilet, encourage him to sit on the
little potty chair. In the beginning, don't bother taking his diapers
off and don't expect any success. Just get him accustomed to sitting on
the potty. Talk and enjoy this time together. Be encouraging and say,
"Someday you'll use the toilet just like Mom or Dad."
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Some children won't
want a little toilet on the floor, they'll want to sit on the big
toilet. If this is the case with your child, purchase a potty seat
that fits on the big toilet. Encourage your child to set dolls and
Teddy bears on the potty seat to play toileting. Through play
children learn about toileting. If Teddy accidentally falls in the
toilet, calmly rescue him and allow the play to continue. Your
child will learn from this experience that if he falls in, like
Teddy, he will be rescued and not flushed away. All of these
activities help children warm up to the idea of using the toilet
themselves.
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Traditionally, moms
are the most involved in teaching toileting techniques, so girls
often train more quickly than boys. Girls have bodies like mom, they
see what she does, and they learn from modeling after her behavior.
When dads get involved in training boys, it helps them succeed. If
the same-sex parent isn't involved, a child will still learn to use
the toilet, it may just take a little longer.
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It really helps if
your child can watch another child who is similar in age perform on
the toilet. This puts the toileting process in his realm of
possibility. He thinks: If my cousin can do it, so can I. If there
are older brothers and sisters in the house, encourage the younger
child to watch them in the bathroom (but only with permission from
the older child). Remember, children together in the bathroom always
need adult supervision.
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Modeling by peers is
often all it takes for toileting success to occur. For children in a
child care setting, social readiness is naturally encouraged since
children want to participate in the bathroom activities along with
the others.
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