| Guideline 1: Identify Potential Medical, Developmental or Behavioral Pathology.
Before you should come up with a plan to address this issue, it is vital that you and your doctor have done a complete medical evaluation and know for sure that there is not a medical reason for your child's encopresis. Your child is soiling his or her underpants for a non medical reason.
The second thing that needs to be addressed is your child's development . What is the right age for potty training? Is you child developmentally ready to be potty trained?
Not only does your child have to have the physiological development (bladder and bowel control), but he also has to have the motor, cognitive and verbal developmental skills. To be successful, your child also needs to have the emotional and social awareness required. The Potty Training Readiness Signals will help you determine if you has the developmentally ready for potty training.
The third thing that needs to done is a behavioral assessment . If your child has a pattern of disruptive behavior across multiple setting such as getting dressed, bath time, nap time, bed time, meal time etc, then his behavior pattern as a whole needs to be addressed before potty training is specifically addressed. The child need to be cooperative and compliant to adult instructions and should be able to consistently follow 7-10 parental instructions in a timely manner.
The last thing that needs to be done is to have daily toileting diary for your child. The diary will help in planning the next steps. |
