Children are special and each child is unique, this is the universal truth that allows each child to become his own person and to have his own identity. A child that has been trained to follow orders and act out commands by the number is a child that is not only weak in his personality but also has no clue on how to survive on his own. Without the aid of his supervisor the child is lost and his idea of survival is nil. A child that is truly trained is trained to seek out the advantages that he has so he can exploit them fully for his won gain. A child trained to have street smarts is a child that can adapt very well to different situations that confront him. Therefore, a child that has developed his wit at an early age holds the advantage over a child hasn't.
But there are unfortunate incidents in nature and with children's developments. There are some children that have neither the ability to adapt quickly nor the ability process information about him against the background of the environment. These children have stunted growth in their mental capacities. They lack a certain degree of processing brain cells that make normal children normal. These are special children because of the massive amount of patience that one needs to teach and train these children about the basics of life. Autism is one the main cases of under developed mental faculties; it is characterized by the slow learning process of a child, the backward development of his personality and underdevelopment of his social skills. Unlike a retardate, autistic children have the full use of their brains and all its processes, the only difference that an autistic child has against a normal child is the lengthy learning curve that they have. They usually take twice or thrice as long as normal child to learn some basic lessons in social behavior.
In the case of potty training an autistic child, it is not impossible but it does take longer than a normal child. Special children will need specialized forms of instruction. A normal child would remember where and how to use the potty given that they have been visual and verbal examples of how to do it. Reinforcement training would usually last for a period of two to three weeks with the parents carefully monitoring the child's body language and taking it from there.
Meanwhile, an autistic child would need a little more attention and special instruction. Usually, breaking down the process into segments or steps that can be spread out over a series of lessons can help the child better as he can digest and process the information a step at a time. Letting the process sink in slowly lets the steps be integrated into the habits of the child. Because their learning curve is longer than the usual child this means that the information overload may cause more harm than good. Potty training is a big step in a child's life and to an autistic child it would be one of the greatest tests of his survival in the world. And the best way to go about the process is to let the child know that he doing well and to make him feel that he is no different from the others.
Courtesy of: Isabelle Clover