You could try to teach her the sign (ASL) for potty, if she is able to sign. Otherwise, I have seen people give their child a potty picture (either on a necklace or belt, but you probably find some discreet way to have it available to her all the time). Then teach her to give you the picture when she needs to go - a picture exchange communication system (PECS).

However, my daughter is extremely verbal (no special needs), and we often are still reading her non-verbal clues, and she has been potty-trained for almost a year. She's perfectly capable of saying "mommy I need to use the potty" but doesn't always do so. One reason to make sure she's totally ready before you dive in - as kids get older, if you plan ahead and use the potty before you leave the house, they often don't need to go at all while you are out. At 3.5 year old, my daughter will often go several hours without needing to use the potty.

On the other hand, my son with autism is 5 and not at all potty trained - he's just not ready.

OP here...she's a little over 2 years and we had a successful weekend of potty-training. We've had no accidents today and only one yesterday. She's now wearing shorts (not bottomless anymore) and we plan to move to undies on Wed. My main concern is her telling me she needs to go because she won't be in her home environment where she can just run to the bathroom and use the toilet. She's been showing signs of needing the potty and I guess I'll use those for now (like grabbing her shorts).

I have a girl (no speech delays, highly verbal) and a boy (verbal but mild to moderate MERLD). I trained the girl at 2 1/2, but it took a long time and she had accidents and night bedwetting until we used an alarm at age 6. She still gets up in the middle of the night (herself now) to pee.

I waited with the boy until 3 or 3 1/2 and it took about 2 days and then he never had an accident of any kind.

Go figure.

Anonymous wrote:How old is she?

My daughter had a severe speech delay and now has improved to just having a mild speech delay, and she is just starting to show interest in the potty -- tells us she wants to use the potty, will ask to sit on it, but nothing ever comes out. I don't think she can feel it coming yet. She's 3 years, 4 months, and I plan on giving it a try over the summer but not "forcing" the issue until she turns 4.

I'm pretty convinced that when she's ready, she will train quickly, but if I push her before she's ready, it's going to be a nightmare.

Agree with pp about not pushing before your child is ready. I have twins (now older) who had developmental delays. It drove dh crazy that they weren't potty trained and had no interest. I took them to behaviorists, psychologists and nothing helped.Finally, when they were 5, they decided they were ready and did it. Never had an accident. Now that they are older (12), no one cares how old they were so late to potty train. Some kids are ready before others. Try not to set artificial deadlines -- it will happen.

I have two speech delayed kids (mERLD and apraxia) and we had no problems with potty training.

How old is she?

My daughter had a severe speech delay and now has improved to just having a mild speech delay, and she is just starting to show interest in the potty -- tells us she wants to use the potty, will ask to sit on it, but nothing ever comes out. I don't think she can feel it coming yet. She's 3 years, 4 months, and I plan on giving it a try over the summer but not "forcing" the issue until she turns 4.

I'm pretty convinced that when she's ready, she will train quickly, but if I push her before she's ready, it's going to be a nightmare.

We are on the 2nd day of potty-training our DD and we are worried about getting her to tell us when she needs to go. She's had no accidents today, but we place her on the potty every two hours. When she feels the urge to go, she will either run up to me and I'll immediately place her on the potty or she'll head to the potty herself. Should I continue with what I'm doing and just really work on "pee" and "poop"? I'm really nervous about heading out of the house this week.