Playskool Guide to Potty Training

Excerpt from Chapter 1: The Power of Playfulness Play is the foundation of knowledge for your child. When she plays, she learns about her world in a meaningful and lasting way that is best suited to her developmental needs. Instinctively, she internalizes important concepts and skills and begins to define the kind of person she will become. She discovers right from wrong, the power of purposeful choices, and that success is a process. When she plays, your child is the director, making the connections that are most meaningful to her, rather than being shown or told the "right" connections by someone else. Learning happens naturally through play. The Advantages of Playful Learning Play is always more than what first meets the eye; it conceals an elaborate web of cognitive and emotional connections. Through the adventures of play, your child personally engages her whole world (or at least her day-to-day world). Simple games of hide-n-seek teach her that the world continues to exist even when people and things are shuffled around into new places. That playful knowledge helps her to sleep better, knowing it's safe to close her eyes at bedtime. Filling and spilling buckets in the sandbox or cups in the bathtub helps her to comprehend and verbalize concepts of full and empty. Believe it or not, your child will later use these concepts to understand sensations in her potty-learning body. Since child-logic is very different from rational adult-logic, learning is different for young children. Hands-on, multisensory, playful interaction with people and things is the best way to map new knowledge and new skills onto a child's growing brain. When your child's curiosity leads the way, she finds the answers to all her questions. Each child brings originality to learning and to potty training. Play develops your child's thinking - helping her think in new, unpredictable contexts - and enhances her self-esteem as a unique person. Self-esteem grows from your child's interactions with the world. It is her tried and true belief in herself: "I can do this." Playful learning gives your child the opportunity for trial-and-error and for repeated practice. It allows her to safely stretch her abilities until the new abilities become automatic. When she experiences the "click" of learning, there's no turning back. It's as if she knew it all along! You see it in your child's glowing face. "I did it! I got it!" Mastery in a variety of situations under a variety of conditions gives your child the confidence to know she's ready for anything. Confidence and competence are not optional by-products of successful potty training; they are essential to the potty training process. Play also strengthens the relationship between parent and child. Your child needs you to join in child-centered activities. Families who play together understand one another's strengths and struggles. They are better equipped to help one another with real-life problems, large and small. They also build a legacy of unconditional love and support. Play is the perfect foundation for potty training. Playful Potty Training With a few playful strategies, you can make potty training fun while you work on something you "have" to do anyway. If you can incorporate your child's natural interests and your child's developmental strengths into the learning process, the two of you might actually enjoy potty training. What's more, you might actually become an unbeatable team for life! Which developmental accomplishments came first for your child? Walking or talking? Is your child a "natural" with people or with puzzles? When you approach potty training from a developmental perspective, there are no tests and no failures. Instead you open a window of endless possibilities, a window to fun and learning. You will immerse your child in a positive potty environment where pottying without diapers is a normal partDeerwester, Karen is the author of 'Playskool Guide to Potty Training', published 2008 under ISBN 9781402211874 and ISBN 1402211872.