Last year, on my other blog, I wrote about our use of Sticker Charts to finally accomplish J's potty training. I also wrote in detail about how I was very conflicted in having to resort to bribery to accomplish this very basic of tasks, but how once I found something J considered worth stretching himself for (Marshmallow Peeps initially, Lego sets eventually), I jumped all over the bribery bandwagon, and lo and behold, got the job down once and for all. Whew.Well, here we go again.
A couple weeks ago, I discovered that if I bribed Zoo Boy with a Sticker Book, he would sit on the toilet for literally hours until he finally produced some poop in there. But having accomplished that, and earning the beloved sticker book, he then told us that he'd forgotten where the bathroom was, and any further progress looked hopeless. Last weekend, on our "Mommy and me" date, I grabbed a small armful of sticker books while in the book store. I showed him the books and told him that they would be rewards for pooping on the potty. (A pair of nearby mothers quickly grabbed me to ask if that works -- I said "Here's hoping!" At least I'm not alone....) Well, first thing the next morning, Zoo Boy was out of bed and ready to poop and earn a sticker book. It took the better part of the day -- in fact, it took two. But he DID manage to put some poop, a teeny, tiny, microscopic amount, into the potty. And I gave him a sticker book, which he was pretty excited about. Next day, the poop was in his pull-up again. When I asked him why he didn't just use the potty, he shrugged and said "well, tomorrow I'll use the potty and get a sticker book".
Hence, enter the Sticker Chart. I made up a chart for him and showed it to him. I explained that he would earn a sticker for every time he pooped on the potty. And when he pooped 5 times and covered the "Sticker Book!" letters, he'd get a sticker book. And then again, another round of 5, and then a sticker book. He examined the chart carefully, then frowned at me. "How come there's no sticker book for 15?" I explained that by then, he'd have so much practice that he had to work harder to earn his prize. He looked at me dubiously. I upped the ante, and said "but for the sticker book at 20, you can go to the store to pick out your own." He raised an eyebrow. "At the mall?" he asked hopefully. Sure, I said -- whatever, just POOP IN THE POTTY.
As you can tell from the above pictures, we've been having success. Outrageous success. No "accidents" since. (Well, not poop anyway -- we've still got some peeing issues, but we'll deal with that later. One thing at a time for goodness sake!) And today he earned his first Sticker Chart prize, the coveted Star Wars sticker book. Oooohhhh.... (but look at how proud he is of it!)
He quickly raced it out to the living room to show J, and the two of them set to work on it and filled in every space with the appropriate stickers. Then made me sit down with them and showed it to me. Several times.
He couldn't wait for his playdate with his buddy Fluffy (son of my friend Kyra, from This Mom) so he could show him his new sticker book. Just so happens that Fluffy was here right after he earned his very first sticker book, which Zoo Boy figured must be fate. Kyra and Fluffy celebrated his accomplishment with just the right amount of enthusiasm, and Fluffy showed just the right amount of interest in and admiration for the sticker book.Sticker charts. I'm still conflicted about them. I still don't love them. But even a doubter like me has to admit -- with the proper motivation, anything is possible.
4 comments:
Sticker charts are one of those ideas that always seems to last about three weeks.
I dunno. I'm a pretty big sticker-chart doubter, but we used them successfully with J for months while struggling with his potty training. I think these kids with extreme sensory issues and trouble feeling what's going on with their own body need some sort of external motivation to get them willing to stretch themselves that far and try that hard to do something that is extremely difficult for them.
In any case, I'll be more than happy to drop it once it's served it's purpose. But I strongly suspect it's going to take longer than 3 weeks.
i loved that we were there for both victories! i'm with you re: charts and the like but you know, it is working. i do think the sensory stuff makes it harder for our kids to feel what we take for granted.
i'm so proud of zoo boy! he was sooooo excited as he told me of his upcoming trip for THE MALL for the sticker book at number 20!
Is Zoo Boy aware of WHEN he's peeing, or only after the fact when the pull-up is wet? My Purple had so little bodily awareness that at six and a half he didn't feel himself peeing. Part of the problem was that his little body seldom relaxed enough to pee for more than a few drops at a time. (At that time, Purple managed to combine a very calm personality with a very tense body.) How mystifying those first six months or so of toilet-training must have been for him - sitting on the toilet, sometimes being rewarded and sometimes not, with no notion of what made the difference. What finally worked with him, was to bring a little TV and VCR into the bathroom with his favorite Elmo video. My finger would hover over the play button while I waited for him to pee. The instant he started going - I started Elmo. Elmo stopped when the pee stopped. While working the VCR with one hand, the other hand held his hand down to his penis - not actually making him pee on his hand, but shifting his attention downwards enough that he was aware of what was happening. (Luckily he always LOVED sitting on the toilet, so it was no trouble keeping him there until the moment came.) He finally made the connection between sitting on the toilet, peeing, and getting something for it. Sometimes in between times, he'd reach down and push on himself as if hoping to make some more pee come out. Gradually he started peeing more than a few drops at a time. By the time he was about seven we could withhold the reinforcement until after he had peed, and give 10 sec of computer time for a drop and 2 minutes for a 2 second stream. By age eight, he was consistently "going" in long streams and requesting the toilet when he needed it.
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