ABA: Applied Behavioral Analysis and sheer manipulation is what I have been using to get Miss C to use the bathroom and abandon her diapers.

I must say in almost two weeks, we are doing great.

We started out, as I mentioned, with a chart...ahem...::coughs:: since I have a camera NOW, I can show you my chart:



I got this chart originally at Child Avenue. The original Chart had a Train. But I assumed that having a train would be confusing so I searched on the web and I found some pictures of a lil' girl on the potty. I replaced the train pic. Then I did the following:

1. I placed velcro wherever I wanted a star placed.
2. I bought star stickers and glued them on posterboard and placed velcro on them as well, so that they would stick to the chart.
3. I glued the chart to posterboard and decorated.

I did the same exact chart for school and daycare and my mom's house. Everything sincronized.

The original plan was to give Miss C a reward when she finished placing all the stars on the board. But that was taking quite a bit and we were not getting positive results. So I went to a local drugstore, bought some cheap tinker toys and began rewarding her every time she went.

Seeing that this was gonna get expensive cuz the gal caught on, I then downsized to lil' toys from quarter vending machines. Miss C understood that everytime she went successfully to the bathroom we would give her a prize. I'd say in about a week, she was going by herself at home.

Last week she started school. I talked to her teacher and we continued the process at school. In a full week she has completely understood the whole process and yesterday the teacher wrote in her notebook that she is going by herself to the bathroom. The teacher, instead of giving her toys is giving her stickers, or stamps her hand with a cute lil' picture.

So now we have officially downsized to stickers.

Our goal it to eventually downsize to prizes like: going out to the park, maybe getting her food at her favorite place, etc and/or verbal praises. This, until she no longer needs a 'reward' in order to go potty.

That's what ABA is all about. Modifying Conduct until you can get the result you want and extinguish all conduct that you don't want. For those who have not tried it, it works very well with all children, not only special need children. In my case, it's been a bonus. I also highly recommend the book: A Work in Progress by Ron Leaf.


It breaks down ABA step-by-step for different situations. I also highly recomend it for teachers, not only parents of special need children.

I felt I needed to share this info...because you never know who is reading and who can find my personal experience useful...

But that will be it...

TTYL folks...

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Thought of the day: Things can always be accomplished, if we do not lose perspective...

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Ain't I bloody chipper...::makes retching noise::

I am so disappointed.