Behavioural continence training in mental handicap: a 10-year follow-up study.

Raslear et al. (1992) checked back on adults with severe or profound intellectual disability who had received one-to-one toilet training years earlier.

They wanted to know if the gains lasted a full decade and if the program still saved money.

Most people still had better bladder control and needed fewer prompts ten years later.

The training also stayed cheaper than changing diapers every day.

Herman et al. (1971) first showed that four days of fluids, alarms, and praise can cut daytime accidents to almost zero. Raslear et al. (1992) now shows those quick gains can last ten years.

Conant et al. (1984) and Lancioni et al. (2009) used the same teaching steps for menstrual and sex-ed skills and saw good maintenance at six months. G et al. stretches that window to ten years, proving the method keeps working for toileting too.

Heslop et al. (2007) kept computer skills for six months but users still needed help. G et al. found toileting needed fewer booster cues, showing some skills stick better than others.

You can tell funders that a short, intense potty-training package pays off for ten years. Use the same one-to-one steps—task analysis, prompt fading, instant praise—and plan only light check-ins after the first year. The money saved on diapers can buy other needed supports.