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Toilet training children with sensory needs

Toilet training can take time and patience, and all the more so if your child has communication or sensory needs. The information and advice here will help you support children for whom toilet training is more of a challenge.

Children with sensory needs may show some of the following behaviours when it comes to using the toilet:

  • Being frightened or reluctant to sit on the toilet, perhaps because of the open space beneath them or the splash sound in the toilet
  • Feeling anxious about ‘letting go’ of their poo, which they may see as part of them
  • Only doing a wee or poo in their nappy or pants, perhaps going to a certain place or hiding when they do this
  • Liking the sensation of doing a poo in their pants or nappy

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Page last reviewed: 07-10-2024

Next review due: 07-10-2027