Hi there and welcome to this week’s Aspergers article …

Question

Do you have tips for toilet training a young child with Asperger’s?

Answer

Toilet training your child with Asperger’s will most likely be difficult for you as a parent. If you have potty trained an older child, you will find this experience likely to be very different. Methods that work with some children are typically based on a child’s desire to please the parent and often based on a reward system. Many parents have relied heavily on ‘the M&M method’ or the ‘shoot the Cheerios in the bowl’ trick. These are not typically effective with children with Asperger’s, as children with Asperger’s don’t tend to have the same desire to please and have a more difficult time changing behaviors.

With children with Asperger’s, it can be effective to try to change only one behavior at a time. Concentrate on teaching a child to either pee or poop in the potty, not both at the same time. Watch your child to see if you see signs that your child is aware of needing to use the toilet. If he is aware of his need, it is time to start training.

Many parents find Social Stories helpful during potty training. These are short, pictorial guides designed to storyboard the potty process. Talking through these with your child can help familiarize him with the process of using the toilet. These stories should contain information about feeling the need to use the potty through flushing the toilet and washing your hands. You will need to repeat these Social Stories often, and understand that the potty training process take some time.

Establish a routine around using the potty for your child. This will help the child with Asperger’s feel more comfortable with the toilet training process. Look to see if your child has any fears about using the potty that need to be addressed. Look to see if your child has a degree of comfort and ability in manipulating his own clothing. Can he pull down his own pants? Can he work the button or snap on his pants? If he is comfortable with these things, use them in helping him establish his potty routine.

Maria Wheeler has created a good book on toilet training called, “Toilet Training for Individuals with Autism & Related Disorders.”  This comprehensive toilet training guide contains two hundred toilet training tips and over forty case studies with solutions. Reading this book will give you not only helpful tips, but also some real life examples of how those tips worked for people.

Have a great week,

Dave Angel

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Articles posted this week at The Parenting Aspergers Community

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I am having real problems with my 9yo aspie son who has developed a positive antipathy towards younger children.  In particular he seems to believe that babies are conspiring to take over the world (and he’s adamant that this is so), and that he is “bullied” by toddlers.  He has just eye gouged a 3 year old who asked, in a very friendly way, what his name was. He is convinced he is constantly bullied at school although the teachers tell me this is not so and he is under constant surveillance throughout break periods (although he doesn’t know this), so there is no substantiating this claim. It’s appeared to me to be a paranoid delusion.  What on earth can I do?  Is this normal for Asperger’s or something different that requires medical intervention?

Children with Asperger’s Syndrome can have trouble understanding social situations. They often have trouble reading people’s faces and body language and they can misinterpret social situations because of this. They often take what people say at face value and don’t understand how to interpret a figure of speech. These difficulties of interpretation can sometimes make social interaction difficult for children. Children with Asperger’s Syndrome are more often bullied at school than neuro-typical children. Children with Asperger’s tend to be … To read the full article go to: -

http://www.parentingaspergerscommunity.com/members/325.cfm

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My 9yo son with Asperger’s often has extreme bloody noses that can bleed profusely for little or no reason.  It’s worse in summer of course, but even through winter he’d have real gushers.  Other parents of kids with Asperger’s have told me the same thing, so we’re wondering what, if any, the correlation between Asperger’s and blood noses might be.  Have you heard of this?

There doesn’t seem to be a strong correlation between a child having Asperger’s Syndrome and his propensity for getting bloody noses. Some children are simply more prone to having bloody noses than others. There are many theories about what causes the nose to bleed and if your son consistently gets serious nosebleeds, you should consult your doctor to see if you can work on …To read the full article go to: -

http://www.parentingaspergerscommunity.com/members/324.cfm

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My 5 yr old boy has always had problems dealing with frustration and disappointment.  Although we have recently received help from a variety of professionals for other aspects of his ASD this issue still looms large. To explain, he doesn’t understand, doesn’t want to know about having to give things up or let them go or to stop an activity that he is enjoying.  Such as patting and cuddling the cat, pack up time at day care etc or stopping play time when it gets out of control. We have sort of managed so far, but as he gets bigger (and he’s going to be a big strong boy) I am concerned as to how to control him and train him to control himself because using technique’s that are useful now won’t be long term. He is a very determined child that’s coupled with a bad temper. HELP!

Many children with Asperger’s express frustration in inappropriate ways. Many parents are concerned with how to teach their children how to react more appropriately to the situations they find themselves in …

To read the full article go to: -

http://www.parentingaspergerscommunity.com/members/323.cfm
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