Thursday, September 1, 2011

Finding His Words

After a little over a week of no potty accidents at school, Matthew wet his shorts twice yesterday. The hourly potty timer they had for him was not set, which happens to me at home too. And when I forget to set it, he is more likely to wet his shorts unless I remember to take him to the bathroom. He is still learning. And so am I.

He has demonstrated on several occasions that he can hold it in and knows when he needs to pee. He grunts and does the little potty dance. He knows the difference between wet and dry although he doesn't mind being wet.

He just needs the words to express this need. Since I am encouraging spoken language with him, I am not reminding him how to sign "potty." Instead, I prefer to show him the written sentence "I need to go potty" since he can sight read those words. And I know it will be a matter of time before he will spontaneously and independently say "I need to go potty" when he needs to go.

The first time he wet his shorts, his preschool teacher, Erin, noticed that he ran to a corner of the room and had a funny look on his face - the kind of look that says, "I need to go potty." He just couldn't find the words. She was going to take him but he preferred the paraprofessional (Dena) in the class to take him, as she usually does. He refused to go with Erin (he fondly refers to her as "E-in". So they went over to Dena (he fondly refers to her as Dee-ya) together.

Erin said, "What do you want to tell Ms. Dena?"

Matthew slowly but firmly said, "I want to tell E-in BYE!"

Erin said, trying to hide a chuckle, "Why do you want to tell me bye?"

Matthew slowly and clearly said, "I need to go potty, Dee-ya."

The second time he needed to go, Erin says he marched right to the front door and pushed the Go Talk button we have up there with a toilet on it. It says "I need to go potty." Unfortunately, it was just too long of a walk to the restroom. He ended up wetting his shorts but HOORAY for initiating to go BEFORE it happened.

He is learning. And he is finding his words.

1 comments:

Kim said...

Ria. Yeah to Matthew for saying such a long sentence! I'm also wondering how long it will be for Luke to say three plus words together (he is 36 mths). For example he will ask for "cookie" on his own. He can also read " I want cookie" but take away the words and he can't say this words together and we work on this phrase all the time!!! Now if he says cookie. I say "I" then he says I then I say want and he says want and then he knows its finished and he says cookie but he doesn't say it all together. Did u see that progression too? I feel like I need to keep a few cards on me at all times that says. I want, this is a.... Etc. Kim