Toilet training is one of the most frequently requested and clinically significant skill areas for autistic preschoolers and their families. Delayed continence acquisition affects multiple domains of functioning, from health and hygiene to social inclusion and educational access.
Provider: BehaviorLive
Take This Course →Including ethics, supervision, and topics like this one. New live CEU every Wednesday.
Join Free →Autistic children often have difficulties learning to transition out of diapers and controlling continence. Due to this, children on the spectrum may require a more systematic toilet training protocol than what parents may use with typically developing children. Most published toilet training procedures with this population include some form of punishment as a component of the treatment package, which may raise ethical concerns. Thus, the purpose of the present investigation was to examine the effects of a standardized behavior analytic toilet training package without a punishment on the successful urinations in the toilet by young children with autism. For students who did not meet mastery criteria with the standardized training package, we implemented a contingent progressive sit schedule phase followed by the individualized interventions when necessary. Three of the five participants successfully learned how to urinate in the toilet with the standardized toilet training package alone. One participant required a contingent progressive sit schedule phase, and one participant required an individualized intervention to reach mastery. Four of the five participants maintained responding when the package was faded out over a four-week period. Results, limitations, and areas for future research will be discussed.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1 | Ethics |
Jessica received her Master's in Applied Behavior Analysis from Michigan State University and became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst in 2018. She supervised clinic based ABA services in Michigan for 3 years prior to starting her PhD where her research focused on toilet training and generative learning strategies for autistic preschoolers. Jessica received her Doctorate of Philosophy in Disability Disciplines with a focus in Applied Behavior Analysis from Utah State University in 2025. Jessica currently oversees Primary Children's Hospital's inaugural Early Intervention ABA clinic in Riverton, UT; and provides independent consulting through Copper Consulting Group, LLC to graduate students, ABA companies, and families seeking ABA services related to toilet training, quality monitoring, systems level change, organizational behavior management, and graduate student supervision/practicum.
Dig into the research behind this topic — plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
279 research articles with practitioner takeaways
252 research articles with practitioner takeaways
233 research articles with practitioner takeaways
You earn CEUs from a dozen different places. Upload any certificate — from here, your employer, conferences, wherever — and always know exactly where you stand. Learning, Ethics, Supervision, all handled.
No credit card required. Cancel anytime.
All behavior-analytic intervention is individualized. The information on this page is for educational purposes and does not constitute clinical advice. Treatment decisions should be informed by the best available published research, individualized assessment, and obtained with the informed consent of the client or their legal guardian. Behavior analysts are responsible for practicing within the boundaries of their competence and adhering to the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.