Doll Demonstration
Put on the doll's underwear, feed it a bottle of water, and then explain that the doll has to urinate. Give your child the following instructions.
“Take the doll to the potty.”
“Take off her pants.”
“Sit her on the potty.”
“Look between her legs.”
Make the doll release water, and point out what is happening by exclaiming, “Look! The doll is urinating in the potty!” Tell your child to praise it and reward it with a pretend snack or sip of juice so he understands that using the potty is a good thing. He will be similarly praised and rewarded when he uses the potty.
Next, help your child remove the potty bowl, empty it into the toilet, flush, and return the bowl to the potty. Provide lots of verbal feedback, encouragement, and manual guidance to familiarize him with the words and phrases and keep him moving in the right direction. Continuously describe what is happening: “You're carrying dolly's urine to the toilet. You're putting dolly's urine in the toilet. You're flushing the toilet.” You'll expect him to do these things after he uses the potty, too.
ESSENTIAL
Most training methods emphasize using the potty, but the fast-track method emphasizes keeping pants clean and dry. Show your child how to feel the crotch to see if his pants are wet or dry, and have him check them every few minutes.
Afterward, put dry pants on the doll. Have your child check its pants and praise it for being dry. Then have him check his own pants. If they are dry, give him a sip of a drink he likes as a reward. If they are wet but he says, “Dry!” say, “No, they're wet.” If he says, “Wet!” say, “That's right, they're wet.” Tell him you will teach him to use the potty like the doll, then change him.
Spill water on the doll's pants when your child isn't looking. Have him check its pants again and tell the doll, “No, big boys and girls don't wet their pants.” Do not let him punish the doll. Tell him that it needs to practice using the potty.
ESSENTIAL
After each accident, your child will be required to practice getting to and using the potty five times. She will hurry to the potty, remove her pants, sit down for two seconds, pull her pants up, and hurry back to where she had the accident. Be forewarned: She probably won't like practicing, and might get upset.
As your child hurries the doll back and forth to the potty from where it had the “accident” again and again, placing it on the potty briefly each time, he learns what he must do when he has an accident. He needs to understand that practicing going to the potty fast is the way to learn not to have accidents.
