When To Potty Train - 4 Ways To Determine If Your Child Is Ready

Statistically speaking, potty training usually starts between the ages of 18 and 30 months, but it is very important to understand that there is no fixed age at which this process should begin. The right time for your child depends entirely on their development in specific areas and no comparisons should be made to other children or statistics. In this article we take a quick look at the 4 key development areas that determine potty training readiness:

1. Motor Skills
If you child has the ability to to pull their own pants down and walk to the toilet, they already have the motor skills required for potty training.

2.Verbal and Cognitive Skills
The cognitive skills required by toilet training is quite complex, but in basic terms the child must be able to recognize the need to relief themselves and have the ability to use logical thought and an awareness of bodily functions to solve the "problem". Verbally, the child should be able to follow instructions and understand the essential words like potty, pants, pee etc.

3. Physiological Development
This basically means that the child must have basic bowel and bladder control and an awareness of the need to relief themselves. If your child squats, grunts or hides when they relief themselves this is already a sign that they have the physiological skills required for potty training. If their bowel movements show some regularity and don't often occur during the night, this is also a good sign. In general this is just a gut feeling..if you think your child has full bladder and bowel control, then they are probably ready.

4. Social and Emotional Readiness
Two important emotional signs to look for are the desire for independence and the desire for parental approval. If your child shows a desire to do things themselves and then look for your approval with a "Look at what I can do!" type of attitude they are definitely emotionally ready for the potty. Social readiness is about the ability/desire to imitate what others do. If they regularly show a desire to imitate what their parents or siblings do, this is a good sign that they are socially ready. This is one of the reasons why the 2nd child is usually potty trained much sooner than the first.

The above list is just a very general guideline and in the end a lot of it still comes down to simple parental intuition. The fact is, whether your child is 100% ready for potty training or not is not as important as choosing the right method. If you choose the wrong method, potty training will be a frustrating process, no matter how developed your child is in the above areas.

By: Nathan M Scott

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