First Step Early Intervention Programme

First Step was in the community on Wednesday🤩. This time we connected with the Sunshine Early Stimulation Center and their wonderful parents. The topic of choice: Toileting: a Divergent Experience. This topic is personal and unique to every family so we always work to engage with respect and understanding. The PowerPoint was tossed out the door and connections 🥰were made.

Key takeaways 🤔.

The word ‘training’ is used very loosely.

Be compassionate 💕with yourself. This can significantly reduce your stress on this journey.

LOCK & KEY 🔑 into your child’s individual difference around being ready to transition out of diapers. Look for physical signs of awareness. Begin to understand their responses to sensations and shifts in sensations around toileting. Including visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory awareness and sensitivities. Motor control and coordination, interoception awareness, experiences of feeling safe, gut health differences, stomach issues, unrecognized trauma, and communication differences. It is important for children to feel safe.

The journey is bigger than being out of the diaper. Developing related skills such as taking off and putting on clothing and diapers, and hand washing are all aspects of toileting and self-care we never want to overlook on this journey.

Lock into your child's natural rhythms of expelling waste. Any scheduling should be around what is already happening. Although we want to avoid the added stress that a schedule can impose on everyone, some children find it supportive.

Be consistent and calm, potty parties are on a sabbatical. This excitement for some child can create pressure and stress in their nervous systems.

Mirror neurons are vital on this journey as many children may experience a breakdown in communication during this process. Seeing it done can be so meaningful. Using videos and or pictures can be supportive in trying to capture the process. We need to make meaningful connections.