Self Care Season: Toileting

Toileting can feel like it should be straightforward, until you’re the one supporting a child thought it. When they are unsteady on the seat,  overwhelmed by the bathroom, or unsure what their body is even telling them. In this episode take a clear OT approach to toilet training and building toileting independence.

We talk through the hidden skills behind toileting, including balance and postural control for sitting safely, motor planning for climbing up and managing clothes, interoception for noticing “I need to go”. You’ll hear practical ideas for setting up the bathroom,  ways to reduce sensory overload from bright lights, echo, smells, flushing, to noisy hand dryers. We also share language you can use to give kids more choice and control, so the bathroom feels less surprising and more manageable.

We dive into the  full toileting sequence and discuss why visuals, social stories, and consistent routines can unlock independence for older kids as well as toddlers. We cover wiping practice games, creative problem solving with toilet paper, and clothing choices that make early toilet training easier, then finish with tips for keeping strategies consistent across home, preschool, school, and community toilets.

If you found these OT toileting tips helpful, don't forget to leave a review and share the podcast around with anyone that you think could benefit from it and follow me on @bellesotcorner on instagram and Facebook for more insights. If you would like to donate and support the podcast - https://studio.buymeacoffee.com/dashboard 

DISCLAIMER:
Whilst I will always make evert effort to share correct information as at the date of the podcast, research is constantly happening and as a profession we learn more everyday. One therapist may have a different way of doing things to another, and every child's needs are unique. By listening to this podcast, you agree not to use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or others Consult your child's paediatrician or therapist for any recommendations for your child.

Transcript

Why Toileting Is So Complex

Set Up For Safety And Stability

Sensory-Friendly Bathroom Tweaks

Teaching What Toileting Even Is

Readiness Signs And Body Cues

Visuals To Support Step Sequencing

Helping Kids Notice The Need

Wiping Skills And Practice Ideas

Clothing Choices And Consistency

Key Takeaways And Closing

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hello everybody and welcome back to Bell's OT Corner. Today we are going to be jumping into all things toileting. It's a question I get asked about all the time. It's a common question for OTs. It's the when do we do toileting? How do we do toileting? What do we need to know when we think about toilet training? But also how can we support as much independence as possible for toilet training? So this particular episode is probably going to be, you know, more for some of our parents out there, but also for teachers if you're helping support parents along their toileting journey, um, or you work in a special education school, and so you might be supporting more learners as they build their independence into toileting as well. So before we jump into the nitty-gritty of toileting, I just want to kind of do a little bit of an overview of toileting as a whole. So toileting is a really complex task and it requires lots of different underlying skills. We've got the motor components, so balance, maintaining my balance on and off the toilet, particularly being able to maintain a seated balance on something that has a big hole in the middle of it. So balance is a huge part of it. Motor planning is also a really big part of it, and this from you know organizing our clothes for toileting, but also navigating how we get on and off the toilet, particularly for some of our toddlers who go through toilet training. You know, the toilet is quite a long way up. Um, and so we'll talk through some strategies for that as well. You've got your interception, so this is all those internal sensations associated with going to the toilet. So recognizing the need to go to the toilet, knowing what the difference might be between needing to do a wee or needing to do a poo, but also being able to start to recognise some of those more refined cues as you get, you know, a bit further in your toileting journey and go, oh, I need to go soon, but not right now, versus those you know, times when you're like, nope, I need the bathroom and I need the bathroom right this second. It's also got all the tactile components, and that's everything from um clothing and the feeling of our clothing against our skin, but also cleaning ourselves after the toilet and wiping our bottoms. Um, there's a lot of different tactile components at play. So if you've got someone that does have some tactile difficulties or can find tactile experiences quite overwhelming and stressful, this is also something else to consider. And then you've also got the dressing, so the fine-motor components of this, particularly as clothing gets more complex as we get a bit older, and you've got buttons and zippers on a lot of your pants and trousers. Um, and you've got kind of the proprioceptive piece, and so if we think about when we do wipe our bottom, it's not often a pro task that we can see and watch ourselves do as easily. It relies a lot on that proprioceptive system of knowing where your body is in space, how you can reach around to be able to wipe successfully, etc. etc. So a lot of these skills I will kind of reference throughout the episode today, but if you want to know a little bit more about how you can support the specific skills in detail, jump back to the relevant episode. So that'd be like episode on interception, episode on proprioception, episode on motor planning, the episode on core um stability, that we'll just have some other activities and examples that you can do to be able to, you know, build it into play. So we're still working on it, and it means that when we're actually doing the toileting piece, we're not having to put all of our energy into that piece. It's just gonna help be able to oh it's postural tone and stability, not core. Call it postural tone. Um because what we're gonna talk about today, and this is what I often talk about, is when we're looking at helping build independence, we want to make sure we are focusing on well, what is the part of the task where we want to build the independence? Or what is the part of the task that is tricky that we want to focus on, and how can we make every other part of the activity as easy as possible. So, for example, one of the things that can be really, really helpful when you start to look at toileting, particularly with toddlers, is looking at the equipment and the setup that you have in the bathroom. And there's heaps of equipment that's commercially available now. There's things like the toilet seat inserts, and if we think about why we would use those, is because if you put a little child on an adult-sized toilet, it's a very big hole, and they're gonna have to be turning on all of their muscles, and that's gonna be all of their core. They're probably gonna have tension through their legs, and they're probably gonna be holding the edge of the toilet seat with their hands all to keep their stability. Now, as soon as you're in that position and turning everything on, the ability to relax to actually void and go from your bladder and bowel is much harder because it's this idea of I need to keep all my tummy muscles turned on, but I also need to relax my tummy muscles and push at the same time to be able to go. So it makes it much more complicated from a motor perspective. Hence, if we look at things like toilet seat inserts, what that does is that makes the hole a bit smaller, but it gives us more stability because there's more of the toilet seat that the child can sit on. Likewise, you'll see a lot of um toilet steps that are around, or just having a little step to put under their feet, because the more that we can keep their feet supported, the more stable they will feel, which means the less they have to physically work hard, and the easier they can actually focus on the going part of going to the toilet and not having to work on the organizing my body just to feel safe on the toilet. Or it could be that actually where we start with is just feeling safe is sitting on the toilet, and what we're you know celebrating is just those really early steps of we're gonna climb up and we're gonna sit on the toilet, and if something happens, great. If nothing happens, equally great, because the bit that we're focusing on is that safety and stability while sitting on the toilet. And so it's always about thinking what is the skill that we're honing in on here, what is the smaller piece of the toileting process that we're looking to build the independence and build the success in. Because as much as possible, if that's what we're focusing on, we want to make everything else as easy as possible. So your typical bits of equipment, like footstools or just having a little step or something that can go under the seat. As I said, on Amazon there's heaps of different bits, and there's so many different bits of equipment around that you can look at. And if you do need some more complex equipment, it is something I'd recommend that you discuss with your occupational therapist around the more specialist equipment that we might use to help build and support some independence and um toileting. There's also things like bottom wipers that can help for children that don't have a range of movement that means they can actually reach around. There's heaps that you can start to look at, but that would require some support from your occupational therapist. So I'd encourage you to chat to them about it if you think it's something that your child would benefit from. But the other pieces of just more commercially available equipment are kind of the little steps to make sure our feet are supported. There's bigger toilet steps that you can get for kind of climbing up and onto the toilet, and then those toilet seat inserts to make it a little bit smaller. Whilst we're talking about equipment, I'm just going to quickly touch on environment when we're looking at toileting. Bathrooms can be quite overwhelming places for a number of reasons. Typically in the bathroom we have really bright lights. Also, typically in the bathroom, they can frequently be tiled spaces which bounce sounds, so it makes it a lot noisier. And sometimes the noise of a flush can be really quite overwhelming, and they can be very overwhelming experiences for our sensory systems in particular. And also, sometimes the smells can be either unpredictable and sometimes quite unpleasant, and unpredictable because sometimes you may go to the toilet and it doesn't smell at all, and other times you may go to the toilet and it actually has quite a smell to it. And so these are important things just to think about because you know your child best. And if you know that your child has certain sensory preferences or certain smells that they find really challenging, or bright lights are really tricky, again, if we're thinking about that challenge for them, well, can we change the environment so they're not having to navigate all of that, but can actually focus on the skill that they're trying to build? So, for example, is there a smaller light that can be used in the bathroom? You know, there are some great battery-powered lamps that you can get now. Could that sit on the sink so that you know it's a calmer space to be in? I've had kids that use different essential oils that they put on in the bathroom because it just helps cover the smell, and it's a smell that they like to make that a little bit easier for them to be able to navigate. Think about the set the pitch of your voice in the bathroom as well. You know, we can be really excited with a quiet voice, and this is where you can use all of your affect to go. Wow, look at that! Look at what you did. That's wow, goodness me, that was tricky. But look, you did it. That's so cool. And then you but you don't have to be loud because as soon as we increase our volume, that's when we're gonna get more echoing in the bathroom and more um sound vibrations, which can then make it a little bit trickier. So it's just things to keep in the back of your mind around well, how can we set up the physical environment itself and how can we use ourselves to be a supportive tool in that to help navigate some of those changes? It's the same with like hair dry hand dryers, hair dryers, no, hand dryers, particularly like public bathrooms. They can be really noisy, and sometimes it can be just around getting ourselves ready for it, and it's the same with the sound of the flush. So, can we give a little bit of choice and control and go, hey, we're gonna turn the flush on. Are you gonna do it or am I gonna do it? Okay, you want to do it. All right, well, let's get ourselves ready. It's gonna be noisy. Do you think it's gonna be really noisy or a little bit noisy? Oh, in the middle, okay. Well, let's test it, let's see. Are we ready? Let's go. And it's just all of this prep to help them know what's coming, expect what's coming, and make it a little bit easier for them. Or if actually the part that you're focusing on is having successes in the toilet, and if that's you know gonna be such a big achievement for your little one, then go, would you know what I can flush? It's a noisy thing. Do you want to try to flush today, or would you like me to flush and you can leave the room? And over time we build up to that independence and flushing as well. So it's just always things to think about and always things to consider. And you'll never find an OT that doesn't love talking about the environment because it has such a big impact on the actual task itself, because it has such a big impact on what the child or the adult has to experience and what part of their brain has to be processing and managing whilst trying to also complete the task that is either less familiar, completely unknown, or quite challenging for them. So it's always a good one to think about. But if we think about what some of the skills are that we need for toileting, because toilet training and building independence in toileting, as I said at the start, is a really quite complex process because also for those that are starting toilet training for the first time, their entire lives, they have gone in a nappy typically. So they have learnt and know that when I need to go, I can go, and if I make a bit of a fuss, someone can help me change, or do you know what? My parents are so fantastic, they notice every time, and they change me straight away, and that's the process. And then all of a sudden, we as the adults we change the rules and we change what's expected, and we go, Well, you're a big girl, you're a big boy now, so you're gonna use the toilet. And this is a completely foreign concept, and it's a completely new thing to learn. And not that this is a problem, but it means we need to learn what the toilet is. We need to learn what is my wee, what is my poo, where does it go? What happens? What do you want me to do? How do I do that? And so, what can be really helpful in this process is talking about it quite openly. Talking about, yeah, you're going to sit on the toilet and you're gonna do a wee and it's gonna go in the toilet and then we flush the toilet and it goes away. There are heaps and heaps and heaps of really nice kids' books all around toileting to help start to navigate the learning of what the toilet process is. Before we even come close to sitting on the toilet, we actually need to understand what this thing is and what it's used for. Could you imagine never having seen a toilet before? And all of a sudden someone putting on a toilet on this thing that feels very unstable because it's got a big hole in it, and you know, you've got your trousers down, and all of a sudden they're telling you to do something that you've never had to do or consciously think about doing before or consciously pay attention to before. So these are just some things to keep in mind when we look at toileting, is well, actually, have we spent the time to talk about what toileting is and talk about the steps of toileting and explain those? And this is where things like visuals can be really helpful, this is where things like store social stories or just books about going to the toilet are super, super helpful, and also talking them through going to the toilet. All really good things to help them understand that this is new, this is different, but this is how it works, and this is why. So, but if we think about some of the skills that we'd kind of typically look for to indicate that someone might be ready for toilet training or ready to build their independence in using the toilet, well, one, we'd want them to start noticing if they had soiled their nappy. So if it is, you know, that they'll come and tell you, or you'll notice they'll just do a bit of a bit of a um, some kids will do a bit of a dance, some kids might start to pull at their nappy, some kids, you know, all the different cues are v vastly different. Well, that'd say wildly different, but vastly different. Um and it's, you know, you again, you know your child best, and so it's starting to look for those cues and you know, attributing to them. Oh, I see that you're pulling at your nappy. Have you done a poo? Let's have a check. Oh, I wonder if you just did this. I wonder if you felt it in your tummy. Again, linking in those introspectices. But when we start to see children that are either holding for periods throughout the day, or that they're starting to notice that they've got something in their nappy and that they have soiled, these are all really nice signs that they might be ready to start toilet training. And it's just something to think about because that you know, recognizing the need to go, which is that introspece, can be quite tricky. And it typically comes from us helping and pointing out what us as the adults I should say, what some of those body cues are of like, oh, I can see that you're standing there dancing a little bit. Do you need the toilet? I'm not sure. Should we just go and try? And let's just try and see. Oh, you sat on the toilet. Oh wow, you did a wee. I wonder if when your body's feeling like that, that might be your body telling you that you need to do a wee. And we're pulling these links for them and helping them start to pay attention to these body cues so that they can start to understand what they mean, and ultimately that's gonna help build their independence because they go, Oh, hang on, I'm getting the same sensation again. This is my body telling me that I need the toilet, and so I can either go off to the toilet myself or I can have the independence to go and get mum or dad and say, Hey, please take me to the toilet. And so it's always thinking about how much we can in the moment be pointing out and linking what some of those things might be. And this is where, if you go back to the interception session um session episode as well, it's where I talked about the power of the kind of like I wonder statements. It was something when I was listening to one of um oh, what's her name? Kelly. Oh, it'll come to me in a second. Kelly, who does a whole bunch of the interception stuff, she's an OT out of the US. Kelly Marler um was listening to one of her trainings on interception, and she was talking about the power of this I wonder statement of I wonder if that could be this. I wonder what that might be because the reality is everybody's body cues are different. And we can't assume that the body cue for us needing to go to the toilet is going to be the exact same sensation that our child has. So we have to go, oh I wonder, I can see your body's doing this. I wonder if it might mean this. Let's go and try. Oh no, it didn't. That's okay. Maybe it meant something else, and that's fine too. But having these I wonder statements to start to draw their attention to and help them make their conclusions about what their body is telling them, because we do know that everybody's experiences are different, and we need to make sure that we're helping them link their understanding and their body cues with what it means for them. So once we have this kind of we're building our awareness of our need to go, and again, this might be where we see initially, we don't notice I need to go, I don't notice I need to go, until all of a sudden that interceptive signal has gotten so strong, and I'm absolutely busting in oh my goodness, you need to find me a bathroom right now. We've all been there. Or, and then as we start to you know build more independence, we also start to build some of our interceptive skills around this, and we start to notice a little bit more, we'll start to notice when it might just be building, and I'm like, Oh yeah, I'll need the toilet soon, but no, I can hold it and I'll be okay. Um, and this is all just comes through that practice and that continued paying attention to what some of our body cues are. We've also got when we think about toileting, is we've got this bit of as I said before, it's a whole new process, and it has lots of steps in it, you know, from noticing that I need to go to finding a bathroom, navigating my clothing for the bathroom, getting onto the toilet, having a wee or doing a poo, wiping afterwards, making sure that I'm clean, navigating, standing up and dealing with all of my clothes, flushing the toilet, checking that the toilet's clean, getting over to the sink, washing my hands, making sure I remember soap, drying my hands, make sure I've cleaned my hands thoroughly, drying my hands, and then I might be finally done. That's a lot of steps. And so again, this is when we start looking at toileting, we do a lot of it for them. We go, right, and now we're gonna do this, and I'll help with washing your hands because you've just done all the hard work there. I can help. Or do you know what? You know, you've done really well. Do you want to wash your hands? So we open those opportunities for independence, but we're doing the hard work of what comes next to what comes next. And then as they get older, it might just be a don't forget, remember to wash your hands. They come out, did you wash your hands? Oh, nope, okay, back you go, and we fade that support out over time. But this is where, particularly if you've got some of our older kids in looking at independence and toileting, that later independence and toileting, this is where things like visuals can be really helpful because they can be really supportive of independence. Because instead of it being mum or dad being like, Did you do this? Did you do that? Did you do this? It's actually they can sit there and go tick, tick, tick, I did that, yep, I washed my hands, yep, I went to the toilet, yes, I cleaned, yes, I washed my hands, and I'm done. And you can have the number of steps that's needed for your particular child. It might just be that they need toilet and wash hands, or just one little picture to remind them to wash their hands. Or it might mean that they actually need the help to remember all of the steps, or it could be that they just need help for the wiping bit, and so it's wipe, check, is it clean, yes or no, wipe again or finish. Think about again what are the external supports that we can use so that they're not having to do all of the thinking themselves all of the time. And if it's you know not being successful coming from mum and dad always because they want to be independent, what are the other supports like visuals that we can put in place so they can have that increased independence? But always thinking about what are the bits of this activity that we can pull away so they can do more of it independently. So that's kind of our sequencing of steps involved in toileting. Just before we continue, we're gonna jump back a little bit. Back into interception a little bit, because I do this sometimes. I have things that I want to chat to you guys about and I have notes written down, and then I get too excited and I go on off on a bit of a tangent. So let's jump back to interception for a second. If we think about interception and you think that actually this is the biggest barrier for your child's independence, and you go, yep, they can do it all. If we take them to the toilet, it's all working great, but as soon as it's all relying on me to notice or guess when they need to go. As I said, we want to do lots of those labeling of their body cues, talking about what we're seeing and using the uh wonder statements. We can also explicitly model it as well, and say go, oh, my tummy feels a little bit, ooh, I'm feeling a bit of pressure here, or my tummy feels really tight. Oh, I wonder if I might need to go to the toilet. I'm gonna go and try. Again, this is taking the demand off them to be thinking about their body, but they're understanding the link of something in our bodies can tell us if we need to go or if we don't need to go, and keeping it in that really low demand environment. So you'll notice a lot of the times my questions are should we go and try? Because it's not. I can see this, you definitely need the toilet, even though you could be a hundred percent sure that they definitely need the toilet. But if we can go, oh, you're doing this, you need the toilet, you go, oh, I think we need a toilet. I think let's check, let's try. Takes the pressure of needing to have a result, but can also help with that them starting to link and have those reflections of what their own body is telling them. There's also a whole bunch more strategies in the interception episode, so I do strongly recommend you go back and have a listen to that. The other one, if you've got kids that are having either difficulties with their interception, but also difficulties with kind of maintaining their balance on the toilet, something that can be really helpful is looking at, well, what are we doing whilst we're sitting on the toilet and trying to void? Because as I mentioned earlier at the start of this episode, if you have a kid that is turning all of their muscles on, we're tensing through our tummy, we're tensing through our legs, we're tensing everything to keep us stable, the capacity to relax and void is gonna be really, really tricky. Great things that you can try and do is we can make a bit of a game out of it so we can blow bubbles and go, because that's naturally gonna help us relax a little bit, and it gives a natural bit of a push that's gonna help to see if we do need the toilet. You know, you can sit there and talk about right, we're gonna need to push, we're gonna need to use your tummy muscles and push to see if you have any brew to come out, or see if there's any weed that needs to come out, or using whatever the language is that works for your family, but just make sure that we're using the same language to keep it nice and consistent. So, if we then think about the wiping component of going to the toilet, so I've talked about you know the feeling of needing to go to the toilet, we've talked about getting on and off the toilet in terms of using steps and other bits of equipment that you can use and as much as possible, again, helping children to problem solve and navigate how to climb up onto the toilet independently, because yes, we can lift them up onto the toilet sometimes, and that's you know completely fine as well. But if we're doing that all the time, and then they need to go to the toilet one day, and they go, I don't actually know how to get onto this toilet, and so making sure we're doing taking the time to let them have a try at climbing onto the toilet themselves as well. So we've noticed we've gotten managed our clothes, gotten onto the toilet, had a try, realized we needed to do a poo, and now it comes to wiping. Wiping can be a really, really tricky process because it requires us to be able to reach around behind, not see where our hand is, rely on our tactile system, and also we then need to figure out what is clean, how do I tell if it's clean, and how do I tell if it's dirty. And again, you can make there's heaps and heaps of um fun games that you can play out there. I did a great one where, you know, chair, shaving foam on the back of the chair, see if you can get off all the shaving foam because then they're reaching around behind, not quite all the way to where their bottom is, but it's still that practice of reaching behind and trying to wipe something off. I've also done it with sticking bits of different games, so like cards on the back, so they have to reach around and pull the card off and then match something. So you can build the physical motor movement into a lot of different activities to practice the motor movement, which is gonna help. But again, your best practice is gonna come in the moment when we're toileting. And this is a bit of well, you try first, or I'll do all of it, but you have to tell me if it's clean or not, and what we need to do. So, okay, what do I need to do? Alright, I need to hold the toilet. Where does the toilet paper go? Oh, that's right, it goes on your bottom. And we're gonna do a wipe. Let's check. Is there any poo? Oh, yep, there's poo. So now what do we do? And again, it's that shared problem-solving piece of see if you can get your child to go, oh, it's dirty, you need to wipe again. And even if initially we as the adult are helping with the second wipe, there's still that check, they're still involved, they're still having to think about what this process is. Or you might do it the other way of okay, well, you do the wipe and I'll do the check. So they can do the first couple wipes, and if they're really struggling, then we're gonna obviously always do the last wipe or last couple wipes to make sure that they're clean, but it's again looking at what are the little pieces that they can do and what are the ways that we can start to problem solve it. It's the same with problem solving different ways to hold the toilet paper. We get so stuck into our own routines as adults that I guarantee, and again, I have some great conversations around the work table sometimes. You know, we had a thing I told you in the dressing episode, we had the conversation about socks and how does everyone fold their socks and went around the table and almost everyone did them a different way. How do you use your toilet paper? Also, is a great conversation starter. Well, I love it at least, because some people will fold, some people will scrunch, some people will fold first, then scrunch, some people will like wrap it around their fingers. Trust me, there are lots of different ways, and there is no right or wrong, right? If it works, it's right, and if it works for you, it's perfect. But if you're finding the way that you work so naturally the way that you've shown your child how to do it isn't working, well, could we try and be a little bit creative? Could we be a little bit silly? What are some other ways that we could try to hold this toilet paper that might have more success for them? Particularly if they're building their fine motor skills and they might not have the just did the dexterity that we have as adults. Well, how can we hold this flimsy piece of toilet paper differently that might give us more or less success as we go along? So it's just things to think about, particularly around building that independence within wiping, which can be a tricky part. Equally, if you're finding if you are working with someone or your child finds it really tricky, sometimes starting with wet wipes can be a little bit easier. It's a slightly different tactile sensation, so it's always something to be aware of, but it sometimes will catch more of the mess initially, meaning they can feel some more successes, and you can over time build to using toilet paper. Alrighty. Then there is the clothing component of toileting, and if we think about the clothing component of toileting, again my recommendation is pick the times with the clothing that's going to be the easiest. So, summertime, great time for toilet training because you might be in shorts or skirts or little dresses. So much easier, less fabric to have to deal with than trousers and heavier clothes. Think about you know what sort of buttons you might be using on clothes. How much of uh time is it gonna take after toileting or before toileting to get the clothes off? And are they clothes where their kids can actually be mostly independent in pulling them up? And so even if you've helped them with the toileting, you can go, oh you can do the rest of this. You know how to pull your trousers up, or you know how to pull your undies up, and then you go wash your hands and they can walk away like oh I did it, I did my toileting. And again, it's an often a piece that is not thought about as much, is that idea of where can we give them the easy successes, then being our children, the easy successes where they're not gonna have to think hard, but they're gonna walk away feeling like I did this, I managed this piece by myself, and this this felt really good. And clothes can be a really nice way to have that win. Or if you know that your child struggles with navigating their clothing and struggles with the balance or the fine motor components of being able to complete their clothes, but then go, do you know what you're focusing on toileting? I'm just gonna do this piece for you. I know you can do it in the mornings and I know you can do it at bedtime, but right now, in this activity that is a bit trickier, I'm just gonna jump in and do it for you. And as always, my overall recommendations with things like toileting, well, with any new activity that we're helping build some independence in, but particularly with toileting, think about how you can make it fun, how you can make it a bit silly, how you can bring that bit of like shared problem solving into it, so you're on the same side and you're figuring things out together and make sure as much as possible you're consistent across environments. You know, I've had one mum that I was working with and she's like, Belle, you wouldn't believe what I did. And I was like, Tell me, I'd love to hear it. She's like, Well, the you know, out in the community you needed the toilet, and there was only big adult toilets, and so she managed to do her balance on the toilet, but then I sat on the floor and she put her feet on my knees, and I'm like, perfect, it's not ideal. Well, I think she was in a half squat position, but anyway, whatever she was, it's not ideal, but it gave as much of home environment as we could out into the community. We know that they didn't have a toilet sit insert, but still managed to get a bit of stability under her feet, so it felt a little bit easier. Or, you know, if there's certain phrases that you use at home to help get ready for certain sounds, use those phrases when you're at the community as well to help get ready for the sounds, or have the conversation beforehand, being like we're going into a tour and there's gonna be other people. They might turn the hair dryer on when we're not expecting it, but I'm gonna be there, and so you're doing that piece of co-regulation throughout. I'm gonna be there and I'm gonna tell you when it's happening as much as I can, and if it happens, this is what we're gonna do. So we've already got our plan in place of how we're gonna navigate that noisy or that trickier sound. So always things to think about is keeping it consistent as much as possible, and that means as well we're using with your preschool or your nursery or your school around this is how we're approaching toileting at the moment, and these are the things that are working really well. Could you try embedding some of these and then for nursery or preschool or school come back and do the same and say, hey, we're trialing these strategies, and we took what you did, but we found that this particular strategy worked really well. So I wonder if you try that across at home as well, because the more that we can bridge across environments and bridge across contexts, the easier it's gonna be to build the overall independence in this skill in the skill, which then also means being able to have the independence when out in the community as well. So that brings us to the end of our episode on toileting with some you know quick little tips and tricks. It was one that is definitely a kind of if from today's chats you think, oh, actually, it might be the the mode of planning that's the really tricky part for my child, or it could be the interception. I really, really do recommend you go back and listen to those relevant episodes because they're gonna have some more of the strategies for help building that skill overall, and then today we're talking about more of how we can build the actual toileting independence piece of it. But I hope you all have a lovely rest of your day or night, evening, or whatever time it is when you're listening to the podcast today. As always, please do give us a like or follow Belzo T Corner. I do have the link for the Buy Me a Coffee website as well because it does cost me every month to have this website up. So if you'd feel like donating, please do. It goes a really long way in helping me keep the podcast going. And I hope you have a fantastic rest of your week, guys. And I will speak to you all soon.