At home, we use a product called The Potty Stool, which is also available on amazon.com for $129. It is serving its purpose very well at home, allowing Matthew to get on and off the toilet independently with ease and stability.
In order to replicate his toileting experience at home, and in collaboration with his occupational therapist at school, we decided he would need a step stool for the kiddie toilet at school.
A store-bought plastic step stool like the Baby Bjorn Safe Step was not wide enough for him to get on and turn around on safely as it measured only 13.5" wide x 9.25" deep x 6" high. The Little Looster Booster Step Stool was too high for the shorter kiddie toilet, measuring approximately 26" wide x 19" deep x 8" high.
We needed a step stool similar in width and depth to The Potty Stool at home. It needed to be 18" wide x 11" deep x 6" high. So we (I) decided to make one.
Why not just have the school order one to be made or buy one themselves? Why wait when I can make one easily? Who knows how long it will take to get one made or bought? It will be exactly what I would want Matthew to use until he grows tall enough that he won't need it anymore.
We used:
- (2) 1" x 6" x 10.5" wooden boards
- (1) 1" x 6" x 15.5" wooden board
- (1) 1" x 12" x 18" wooden board
- (6) 1-1/2" long wood screws
The hardware store cut the wooden boards to size. I sanded the splinters and rough edges then penciled in locations for the wood screws. Bill drilled. Elizabeth, our foreman, handed us each piece making sure we had them all. And together we assembled the pieces. It was actually quite simple. And the materials and cutting charge only cost around $25, with enough extra material to make a second step stool.
Matthew, our quality manager, gave us his seal of approval after a test run where he was able to step up on it and slowly turn around without assistance.
I hope it works out at school.
3 comments:
This is great, Ria. I really admire the hard work that your family has done to help Matthew.
Awesome but, they really didn't have a step stool for him? Crazy!
Wait until the school personnel see all that he can do and what you have documented. I hope you will be taking in the pictures too. You are more than prepared. Just remember to keep talking about building a team for Matthew. Take some deep breaths. You have only 17 or more IEP's to go. susan
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