When we remodeled our 250 Turnpike Street building we designed a special Toilet Training Classroom. It has 5 toilets, each with a large enough stall to accommodate both a teacher and student. The area just outside the stalls is large enough to provide space where students can work on tasks or on computer programs, receive instruction in self-care skills, learn how to wash their hands or enjoy a break in the reward corner.

This room has been very promising so far. To date we have successfully taught proper use of the toilet to 2 students who had previously been in diapers all day long. Another 4 students are currently in the process of learning proper toileting and hand-washing skills. The chart below shows the progress of a typical student in toilet training.

When students are in the toilet training room, they are given plenty of fluids to drink. Each student has an individual schedule in which he or she alternates sitting on the toilet for a certain number of minutes and are then off the toilet for a certain number of minutes during which he or she works in the classroom part of the room. This procedure ensures that the student has a lot of occasions when he or she urinates in the toilet successfully and is immediately rewarded for doing so. The student's schedule changes from day to day, as the student shows the ability to go for progressively longer periods of time without having an inappropriate urination or defecation.

Students receive a variety of rewards for urinating or defecating in the toilet and for keeping dry pants. For example, one student receives a tiara and beads, another gets to play with her drum and another goes to visit with preferred staff.

Students wear special underwear that makes an alerting sound as soon as urine makes contact with the underwear. Students are always 5 feet from a toilet while in the room. If a student begins to urinate in his or her pants, the student is immediately prompted to finish the urination in the toilet. This procedure helps ensure a high rate of successful training.

While the students are not sitting on the toilet, they receive instruction in daily living skills such as washing their hands, brushing their teeth, buttoning, zipping a zipper, typing shoes and buckling a belt. They also learn how to use a computer properly, using a touchscreen. Through computer software, they also learn other skills they may need such as how to match shapes, pictures and letters of the alphabet, receptive vocabulary, etc.

Please visit our web site, www.judgerc.org.

For more information about admissions, or to schedule a presentation about JRC, please contact Julie at j.gomes@judgerc.org.

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