ASA's 37th National Conference on Autism Spectrum Disorders (July 13-15, 2006)

• Audio
• Recorded Presentation

The content of our session will reflect the presenters' experiences working with parents and teachers of young children with autism spectrum disorder. For many years, we have been working with teachers and parents who struggle to teach independent toileting skills to children who do not respond to the typical models of instruction. We have found that some current and common home and school toilet training programs do not address the unique learning needs of the individual with autism spectrum disorder. While many programs have proven effective for children and adults with a variety of disabilities, they frequently do not meet the broad needs of families who have children with ASD. These programs may be effective for families who have a wealth of time and personal resources but may not work so well for families who have one parent, families who have more than one child with special needs, or families who have other serious needs at the time the child is ready for toilet training.

Teaching toileting skills to children with autism has presented numerous challenges for families and teachers for many years. In fact, because of their communication deficits or the limitations of our ability to evaluate children with autism, many students were historically thought to be incapable of learning independent toileting skills. Parents and teachers are still hard-pressed to find creative ways to find the time to teach toileting skills to children with significantly limited vocabularies, difficulties with attention and challenging behavior. The ultimate goal of independent toileting was thought to be beyond the reach of some. Even more capable students with autism or Asperger's Disorder have had their success in toileting limited by “one size fits all” toilet training programs that do not address the child's their repetitive behaviors, difficulties with listening comprehension, and idiosyncratic motivations.

We will share some best practices for teaching independent toileting skills to individuals on the autism spectrum and strategies that have shown dramatic impact on the behaviors of some of the children we have worked with. These practices include assessing the child's related skills such as dressing and hand washing, using assistive technologies for communication, and providing a consistent program that is based on behavioral principals such as modeling, shaping and positive reinforcement. We will present the rationale for using an individualized approach to toilet training, along with methods used to informally assess readiness. We will share data from case studies of children at a variety of ability levels and the interventions we used at home and school to improve their toileting skills. These students range in age from 3 to13 years old, with a wide spectrum of communication, behavior and social challenges.

The participant learning objectives are to: 1) Identify assessment practices for understanding the child's readiness for toilet training, 2) Understand the procedures for developing a plan based on the individual child and family needs and abilities, 3) Familiarize participants with some technologies and materials that support toilet training for children with autism spectrum disorders.