Role play

One helpful idea we’ve heard of to help the toilet training process along, is to introduce a doll or teddy bear.

You can buy Teddy a pair of ‘grown up’ underpants and then role play what you are trying to teach your toddler. You offer teddy pretend drinks and then ask our toddler to check and see if teddy is dry. They feel his pants and see that he is so Teddy gets a treat! After setting the timer for about 15 minutes (the time your child would normally need to go to the toilet after a drink), you then sit teddy on the potty. You may like to distract your toddler while you put a bit of water in the bottom of the potty! When you lift him off and they see that Teddy has gone in the potty, you can celebrate together and teddy gets another treat! After the demonstration, you then get your child to take over the toilet training of Teddy which gets them interested and involved in a new way.

If you find you aren’t having much success with toilet training, it’s often helpful to get them to show you how they are going with their training of Teddy. If they are able to take him through the process then you know they understand what is expected of them but if they aren’t quite sure then maybe some additional teaching time is needed.

Making the whole toilet training process fun and interesting means that it’s going to be a much more enjoyable experience for everyone involved!