Partnering with Nemour’s Continence Clinic:

Potty Training BOOTCAMP

Great Strides has partnered with the Nemours’ Continence Clinic to offer families a whole child approach to successful toilet training. Sometimes toileting delays are caused by medical issues, while other times they can be caused by environmental or behavioral issues. With the partnership between Nemours Continence Clinic and Great Strides Rehabilitation, your child will benefit by having all aspects of the root cause of the toileting delay being addressed.

Since the Spring of 2017, Nemours has been referring children for applied behavior analysis (ABA) with Great Strides during evaluations after testing and ruling out physical or medical conditions that could be affecting a child’s ability to learn toilet training.  Great Strides has been working with families in this area since it first began offering ABA therapy in 2007. Of course, families are welcome to contact Great Strides directly to do an evaluation.

If a child’s incontinence has a medical component, Great Strides will refer the family to Nemours to correct the medical condition first.

As explained by Nemours, a child isn’t a small adult, especially when it comes to pediatric urology — when it comes to conditions affecting the kidneys, ureter, bladder, urethra, penis and testes – because their reproductive system and urinary tracts are still growing and developing. Testing for pediatric urology problems can include urinary and fecal incontinence, urinary frequency and urgency, recurring urinary tract infection (UTI), failure to toilet train and chronic constipation.  Some children with disabilities may refuse to participate in scheduled toilet training programs or have an aversion to sitting on the toilet, while others may be successfully trained for urination but have to have wear pull-ups for fecal elimination.

“Once a child’s pediatrician and Nemours’ specialist have reviewed the medical aspect of the child’s incontinence, and if there are still issues, because these professionals are not trained in behavior analysis, the family would be referred to us,” explained Candy Hurst, BCBA, Director of Applied  Behavior Analysis.

How Does ABA Help with Toilet Training?

Applied Behavior Analysis is the science of how the environment affects a person’s learning and behavior. Toilet training, for some kids, needs to be specifically designed with
environmental modifications to increase the opportunity for success.

Such modifications may include: increasing comfort in the bathroom, schedule of trips to the bathroom, caregiver responses to successes on the toilet and accidents. Once the child begins to experience success with toileting, the family caregivers then have something to reinforce, thus increasing the likelihood that the child will continue to have success. This schedule of reinforcement is a vital component of toilet training. The bottom line is answering: What are the issues to address and how are we going to address them?

Presently, there are seven children onboard with the “potty training boot camp” program. “There are many different things that can improve a family’s quality of life and one of the biggest things is toilet training,” said Hurst.  “We encourage parents to reach out and get their child trained and out of pull-ups because even if a child is a teenager, there still is hope.”

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“The Great Strides program truly works!  Regardless of age, behavior issues, medical history, or diagnosis, this model is tailored made for your child. At the age of 3, my daughter (ASD and non-verbal) still wore pulls-ups and showed zero interest in the potty.  Witnessing my frustration, our ABA therapists recommended their “Potty Training Boot Camp”.  Admittedly, I was skeptical but committed to the process.  In a matter of days, she caught on to the program. Now at 8 years old, my daughter has remained fully potty-trained (without regression).”

~ Laura H.