🚽 Toilet Training Chart & Picture Sequence
A picture sequence for the wall and a simple tracker for the week. Built for children who need to see the steps rather than be told them — and for the poo column that nobody else prints.
How to use it at home
- Print two copies: one for the bathroom wall at your child’s eye level, one for the tracker.
- Before you start, record for three or four days when your child is usually wet and dry. Then schedule sits shortly BEFORE those times — you are arranging success, not testing them.
- Point at each picture as you do the step, using the same short words every time. Same sequence, same words, every adult.
- Sits are two or three minutes, calm, with something to look at. If nothing happens, it still ends pleasantly.
- Mark the tracker straight away, in front of your child, and give whatever genuinely motivates them within seconds.
- Never mark an accident with a cross or a sad face. Leave the box blank and change them without comment.
A quick preview — here’s what you’ll print:
Print one for the bathroom wall and one for the week. Same words, same order, every adult. Leave accidents blank — never mark them.
| The steps — point to each one, same words every time | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Go to the bathroom | |||||||
| 2. Trousers and pants down | |||||||
| 3. Sit down — feet on the stool | |||||||
| 4. Wait (count to twenty, or one short song) | |||||||
| 5. Wipe | |||||||
| 6. Trousers and pants up | |||||||
| 7. Flush | |||||||
| 8. Wash hands and dry them |
| Wee in the toilet | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morning, after waking | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Mid-morning | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| After lunch | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Afternoon | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| After dinner | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Before bed | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Poo in the toilet | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sat on the toilet (even if nothing happened) | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Poo in the toilet | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Asked or signalled beforehand | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Dry all day | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dry when we checked | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Told us or showed us they needed to go | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
- Print two copies: one for the bathroom wall at your child’s eye level, one for the tracker.
- Before you start, record for three or four days when your child is usually wet and dry. Then schedule sits shortly BEFORE those times — you are arranging success, not testing them.
- Point at each picture as you do the step, using the same short words every time. Same sequence, same words, every adult.
- Sits are two or three minutes, calm, with something to look at. If nothing happens, it still ends pleasantly.
- Mark the tracker straight away, in front of your child, and give whatever genuinely motivates them within seconds.
- Never mark an accident with a cross or a sad face. Leave the box blank and change them without comment.
Pairs with our toilet training home program at inclusivetherapycentre.com/home-programs
Why this helps
Most toilet training advice is verbal, and verbal instruction is exactly what many autistic children find hardest to act on in the moment. A picture sequence on the wall converts an instruction into something a child can follow on their own, which matters more than it sounds: a child who needs an adult to talk them through every step has not learned the routine, they have learned to wait for prompting. The sequence is also what lets school, grandparents and everybody else do it identically, and consistency between adults is the most common difference between a plan that works and one that stalls.
The tracker exists to stop you judging progress by how the week felt. Toilet training moves slowly and unevenly, and memory is a terrible record keeper — three accidents on a bad Tuesday will convince a tired parent that nothing is working. A fortnight of ticks usually tells a kinder and more accurate story, and it shows you the times of day that still need a scheduled sit. Our full guide to potty training an autistic child explains the method this chart is built around.
We have deliberately included a separate column for bowel movements, because that is the part that most often gets stuck and the part most charts ignore. Plenty of children are reliably dry for weeks or months before they will poo anywhere but a nappy. Tracking it separately stops that being read as failure and shows you whether it is genuinely stuck or slowly shifting.
One thing to do before you print anything: rule out constipation. Gut symptoms are considerably more common in autistic children, and constipation makes passing a stool painful, which teaches a child to hold on — which makes the next one worse. It looks exactly like refusal and it is not. If your child strains, goes several days without, has tummy pain or has soiling accidents, please see a doctor before starting any programme.
This chart pairs with our toilet training home program, which gives you the week-by-week structure. If the bathroom itself seems to be the problem — the fan, the flush, the echo, the cold seat — our printable sensory observation checklist is worth filling in first, because a room a child cannot bear is not a motivation problem.
Tips for using it well
- Do put the sequence at your child’s eye level, not yours.
- Don’t use a cross, a frown or a sad face for accidents. Punishment reliably produces withholding and hiding, which is much harder to undo than the original problem.
- Do give the reward within seconds, and only for the toilet — a reward that also turns up at other times has no pull.
- Do add a footstool so your child’s feet are supported. It settles them, and the squat position genuinely makes passing a stool easier.
- Don’t wait for your child to ask before starting. Many children learn the routine long before they can request it — teach the request alongside, not before.
- Do increase drinks during training. More fluid means more chances to practise, and it helps the constipation side too.
- Do send a copy to school so the sequence, the words and the reward are identical there. If your child is older, agree a private space and who will help.
Common questions
My child is dry for wees but will only poo in a nappy. What do I do?
This is extremely common and it is worth being patient with. First have constipation checked, because pain is often the real driver. Then change one thing at a time and let your child keep whatever feels safe: if they poo in a nappy standing in the hall, the next step is doing it in the bathroom, still in the nappy — then sitting on the closed lid in the nappy, then on the open toilet with the nappy loosened. Each step stays until it is genuinely easy. Skipping ahead is what causes weeks of withholding.
Is my child too old for this to work?
No. Being eight, or twelve, and still in nappies is far more common than anyone admits, and children do learn later. What changes with an older child is the handling rather than the method: dignity matters enormously, so change privately, drop any baby language, and involve your child in the plan as far as they can take part. Motivation shifts too — privacy, independence, swimming, a school trip.
Should I use a timer and take them every hour?
Take them on a schedule built from your own record rather than an arbitrary hour. Track when your child is usually wet for three or four days, then sit them shortly before those times. Fixed hourly trips often mean a lot of sitting with nothing happening, which is boring for the child and discouraging for you. The point is to arrange for success, then reward it.
What if my child cannot tell me they need to go?
Then teach one way to ask — a picture card by the door, a sign, a button on a device — and model it every single time you take them, whether they ask or not. When they do use it, honour it immediately, every time, even if you have just been. If asking is slower or less reliable than an accident, a sensible child stops asking. Our guide to helping a non-verbal child communicate covers this in more detail.
Written by the Inclusive Developmental and Therapy Center therapy team — our Speech & Language Therapist, psychology and ABA staff. This page is awaiting its clinical review.
Want help using these with your child?
A short, friendly conversation is the best first step. Call, text or WhatsApp us — we’ll listen and guide you, with no pressure.
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