I’m following August’s lead, and at the moment he’s VERY interested in people going to the toilet. He’s enjoying telling us when his nappy is soggy and talking about his toys going for a wee. This morning he tried to put his Avocado toy in the toilet ‘for a wee’ - so today we did some role play.

I’ve owned this potty for a while for exactly this reason. Nothing to do with learning to use the potty - I’m not going to approach that until he’s much older and more capable. But I wanted to have one around for familiarity. I dug it out so that he could put his friends on the potty instead of in the toilet! We took turns bringing friends (his soft toys) to the potty and helping them to have a wee. He then wanted to put nappies on lots of his friends. We role play changing their nappies before we change his. The BONUS is that he’s so interested in this at the moment that it’s made him WANT to have his nappy changed. MIRACLE.

WHY DO THIS?
Well role play is excellent for skill and language development. Kids like to role play lots of adult activities: talking on the phone, shopping, being a fire fighter, cooking, looking after a baby etc. Role playing going to the toilet is exactly the same as that - it normalises the activity and when you join in with this play you can teach them all the language around it. It means that they’re more prepared when they’re ready to do this themselves.

LANGUAGE OPPORTUNITIES:
Don’t be afraid to use adult language - children need to know the correct terms for things.

“When we drink lots of water, our bladder gets full. When it’s full, you can empty your bladder by having a wee in your nappy or in the toilet. The wee comes out of your penis”.
Words your little one will need to know: penis, vulva, bum, toilet, seat, potty, wee, poo, finished, help, wipe, toilet roll, fold, flush, pull up, nappy, pants.

Let your little one watch you go and you can talk them through it all!

Are you ready to try role playing going to the toilet?

Watch the roleplay here