Speech delay and potty training

hilwithonelary

DS is 2 yrs 8 months and has started to show some signs that he might physically be ready to potty train. However, we just started speech therapy 2 weeks ago. DS only has about 40 words and no 2 word phrases. Will it be possible to potty train before he's more verbal? Has anyone had success teaching some signs to signal that your toddler needs to go? Or will we have to wait until DS catches up verbally?

ridesbuttons

My boys were both speech delayed and they trained without a problem.  You can find the sign for 'potty' or make one up for your own use.  And of course you verbalize through the entire process.  The toddler doesn't really need to do any talking to get the job done, right?

Cherryblossoms07

You don't have to wait!  DD is speech delayed and we had her potty trained before 2.  Like pp stated, you just have to come up with a sign for potty.  DD started patting herself to let us know when she had to go and the sign kind of stuck.  She still uses it today. 

megann831

DD doesn't shut up, but when she starts stomping and looking a little panicked, I know it's potty time.  She rarely tells me.

yale

DS could say a handful of words on his 2nd birthday. We potty trained him 3 weeks after his 2nd birthday and haven't looked back. We used the Lora Jensen 3-day method and it worked very well for us. He figured out how to tell us he had to go without using words. 

JenGK

My older son has autism, and is very speech-delayed.  Speech was not an impediment to training.  We like the Potty Time DVD from the Signing Time series -- it teaches all the signs you need for potty training. 

And if you are interested in teaching your little one sign to help him communicate while working on his speech, Signing Time is a great series for that.  Both my boys love the DVDs and ask for them all the time.