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Disclaimer: None of the techniques discussed here are evidence-based. We are only sharing what appears to be working in our practice, you may or may not have the same results. I learned this technique from a clinic I used to work at, however, what I say here only reflects how I carry out the training.
There are loads of evidence-based techniques out there for toilet training. If you’ve tried everything and nothing has worked, I suggest you try this out!
Make the Toilet a Good Experience
The last thing you want is your child hating the toilet. When a child becomes defensive about going into the toilet, it makes the whole process impossible. Children (actually everyone) need to feel safe and comfortable when using the toilet. It’s a personal matter, so let’s make it as comfortable for the child as possible. Put toys and books, make it less of a place where you’re forcing the child to pee, and let him/her enjoy the time inside. Sometimes, we go as far as to decorate the bathroom with lights and a toy shelf.
Make it Easy to Reward Target Behaviour
The target behavior of toilet training is peeing into the toilet bowl. We have to make it happen as many times as possible so that we can reward that behavior and it’ll have a higher chance that it’ll repeat. That’s why you should be feeding your child as much water as possible in a short amount of time. Whenever s/he pees, make sure that the pee goes into the toilet bowl. Then reward your child! How do you make sure that it’s successful? Have the child all ready on the toilet, keep him/her there for 1-2 hours a day. More details in our toilet training work shop: www.agentsofspeech.com/offers...
Systematically Increase the Difficulty
As your child starts to realize and anticipate that s/he’s about to pee, then it’s time to increase the difficulty. You can increase the distance between the child and the toilet bowl. Putting a chair inside the toilet would work, as you slowly move the chair further away from the toilet bowl each successive trial.
And last your child has to be full dressed, sitting far away from the bathroom and engaged in a highly preferred task. If your child can still tell you that s/he needs to pee, then you have succeeded!