Daytime wetting
Daytime wetting means a healthy child who wets their underwear one or more times a day at an age when they are expected to be dry.
Allowing a child to use a nappy (daiper) may extend the time required for them to learn to become dry. It can be more useful to consider how you can help your child learn a skill that will prevent the wetting. Once such a skill has been identified and agreed, you can use the Kids’Skills steps in motivating them to acquire the new skill.
Use a puppet
Puppets can be used to help small children aged three to four learn new skills. Tell your child that the puppet you are holding is wet and needs to learn to use the potty. Ask them: “What skill does this puppet need to learn to stay dry?” and then help them work out what the skill might be. Once you have a mutual understanding of the skill the puppet needs to learn, play a game together in which the puppet learns this new skill. It’s much easier for children to help a puppet learn a skill than it is for them to learn skills themselves. While they are doing this, however, they often acquire the same skill themselves or at least get some practical ideas on how the skill could be learnt.
A hyperactive three-year-old boy learned to become dry in just a couple of weeks by playing the following game. He and his kindergarten teacher agreed on a hand gesture that the teacher could use in signalling to him “Do you need to go?” On seeing the sign, the boy hurried to the bathroom.
Creative solutions work
A hyperactive three-year-old boy learned to become dry in just a couple of weeks by playing the following game. He and his kindergarten teacher agreed on a hand gesture that the teacher could use in signalling to him “Do you need to go?” On seeing the sign, the boy hurried to the bathroom. Standing in front of the toilet he spoke to it, asking whether he needed to wee or not. Depending on what the toilet answered, he either pulled down his trousers and urinated or ran back to play.
Possible skills
- the skill of stopping and listening to your body to feel if you need to go or not
- the skill of interrupting play in order to go to the toilet when you need to
- the skill of going swiftly to the toilet when an adult has noticed that you need to go and sends you a signal with a hand gesture or a code-word
- the skill of preventing accidents by remembering to go to the toilet often enough
This article is owned by: Kids’Skills http://www.kidsskillsapp.com/
