Managing Potty Training in a Clinical Setting

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Answer

Actually it depends on the child.  That is our favorite term at the Star Center.  It depends.  We can go into homes.  We can go into schools.  We can see them in the clinic.  Whatever works for the child for any situation.  That is something that we can do.  I will be honest with you.  When we start working with children and they have multiple areas of SPD going on, they may have other things going on as well.  When we are working in the clinic, engagement and relationship is so important, and our focus is really providing the children the ability to feel comfortable.  This builds their self-esteem and self-confidence around their sensory systems.  Sometimes children will just start the potty training after we have been working on all of their foundational skills.  They start naturally doing it more at home.  If the child is still struggling and the parents want us to specifically come to the house, they we definitely can do that.  I  have a child that I mentioned earlier that takes off all of his clothes when he has to go to the bathroom. He is a child who will go at home almost 100% of the time, and he does not have that many accidents, but will not go in public.  He will sometimes get really messy after painting and will go into the bathroom to wash his hands.  It is a smaller public bathroom at our clinic and we practice washing our hands.  He has also gone in there with his mom a couple of times.  Now he is starting to go to the bathroom in that public bathroom.  We did slowly build up to him being able to tolerate it.  Now he still will not go anywhere else except for the Star Center public bathroom, but it is a start.