My son is on the high autism spectrum but it still took him many years past "normal" to potty train. (We did not know about his Autism at the time.) But he was motivated by small toys he could immediately play with. I went to a local thrift store and bought a ton of small robots, characters, cars, etc. and would keep them in a clear bucket above the toilet. When he went in and went potty he could choose a toy after he was done and had washed his hands. He purposely would try to go as often as possible, but I looked at it as more practice so we just bought more small toys and rolled with it.

Today he still has a hard time with all the steps and things if he did not use his hand to flush (used toilet paper) then he does not need to wash his hands as part of the process. There is a picture of each step for going to the bathroom both standing and sitting in the bathroom on the wall for him to follow all of the steps. That helped him out a ton!

Now, we give him an X on his behavior chart for a successful potty time as well as other great behavior choices. All the X's go for toys he wants at a set X price. Example: Right now he is earning a Scooby Doo Mystery Mansion set for 100 X's. Try "bribery" it is still a great way to get what you both need. :)

When it was obvious that the time was right, we went on an underwear shopping/lunch-date. We went shopping first, then discussed and decided "potty-time" terms over lunch at McDonald's. We learned that he was worried about having to learn how to properly wipe "poopie-loopies" and that he didn't like having to break from an activity when the urge "to go" arose. We promised that wiping wouldn't become his responsibility until he felt confident and that we would always be there to lend a helping hand, especially for the messy/big ones. As for not wanting to pause an activity when "duty called", we explained that if he wanted clean and healthy skin, there simply was no other choice. We all agreed that accidents may sometimes happen, but if "it" happened otherwise, the soiled undies would be retired to the trash...Per our agreement, we had only one casualty and believe this was just to test momma's and daddy's resolve. Retiring the pair of undies was done with the utmost tact/respect, NOT as a punishment and it was done together. Approximately 9 years have passed w/o a single awake or asleep mishap. He personally, wasn't into a schedule, books, movies or rewards. He just wanted to talk about, process and help decide how he would learn to master this skill. Daddy and I were lucky, as this method proved successful for both of our children. Best wishes to you and your son, venturing into new areas of growth and independence can be trying and somewhat difficult. That said, unraveling the weave of hang-ups which lead to progress and full-on success is Oh So Sweet!

Sesame Street has a cute DVD. Called potty time with Elmo. They even have a book to. She loves it.

Thanks! The only problem is he doesn't talk much and refuses to go in with me now to even try, the answer when asked or told he needs to try is "NO!" Our conversations at this point are generally one-sided. I still talk to him like I would anyone else though.

We struggled with this off and constipation intermittently through fourth grade, when he refused to eat to avoid pooping altogether.

Two biggest helps for us: a friend helped us create a Social Story video of our son "eating" with actual food and talking about why it's important to eat healthy foods and he was referred out for BioFeedback at Sutter Health in San Francisco (http://www.cpmc.org/advanced/pediatrics/service...).

My son loved watching "his" video on his iPad and forgot to fight eating. The toileting issues were largely resolved in only 6 biofeedback sessions. It was incredible.