Autism Potty Training Visuals: The Bathroom Picture Pack

Autism potty training visuals work because they move the instructions off your voice and onto the wall, where your child can look at them as many times as he needs without anyone repeating themselves. This page is the pack: a toileting picture strip that follows the eleven steps in the kit's toileting task analysis, a "first potty, then ___" board, a sits chart with a note on when charts backfire, and a card for the bathroom door. Each is explained below with how to mount it and how to use it, and the whole set is available as a printable PDF.

What's in the free visual pack

Four pieces, all meant to be laminated and used in the bathroom itself:

• An eleven-step sequence strip, in the kit's order: need to go, say "potty," bathroom, pants down, sit, pee or poop, wipe, stand up, pants up, flush, wash hands
• A potty first/then board with blank "then" cards you can draw on or paste a photo onto
• A progress chart that rewards sits and tries, with space for a small sticker per attempt
• An "I'm in the bathroom" door card the child can flip to signal privacy or ask for help

If you'd rather build your own, the book's suggestion is to photograph your child doing each step and use those photos in place of clip art. A picture of her own feet on her own stool means more than a drawing of a cartoon toddler.

Why pictures beat words in the bathroom

Many autistic children process visual information more reliably than spoken language, especially under stress. The book returns to this idea in several chapters: a spoken instruction disappears the moment it's said, while a picture stays put and can be checked again. In a bathroom, where the child may already be managing a loud fan, a cold seat, and a body signal he can't quite read, a stream of verbal prompts ("Pants down. Okay, now sit. Sit down, honey. Are you sitting?") adds auditory load to a situation that's already full.

Verbal prompting also drifts into nagging without anyone intending it, and nagging has a cost: the child learns to wait for the fifth reminder, and the parent's voice becomes the cue in place of the body's signal. A picture strip lets you step back. Over time the pictures become the prompt, and pictures are much easier to fade than a parent standing in the doorway. The American Academy of Pediatrics makes a similar point in its guidance on toilet training children with developmental differences: some children do best with a formal routine of simple, predictable steps, and some need concrete demonstration more than verbal explanation.

The sequence strip

The strip follows the kit's toileting task analysis (pp. 169-170), one picture and one or two words per step:

1. Recognize the need to go
2. Say "potty" (or hand over the card, or go to the bathroom)
3. Enter the bathroom
4. Pants down
5. Sit (feet on the stool)
6. Pee or poop
7. Wipe
8. Stand up
9. Pants up
10. Flush
11. Wash hands

Eleven sounds like a lot for a two- or three-year-old, and the reason to keep them all is that every one of them is a step your child will eventually have to do without you, and the steps that get skipped on picture strips (standing up, pants up, the noticing at the very start) are the ones nobody remembers to teach. Steps 1 and 2 come last for many children, since they depend on the body signal; scheduled sits cover them in the meantime, and the pictures sit there until the day they're needed. If one step needs breaking down further (wiping, usually), do that on a separate card so the main strip keeps the kit's order.

During the routine, point to the current step and wait, giving your child the chance to do it with the least help possible. Between routines, use the strip as a tracking tool: the kit's Daily Living Skills sheets pair each step with the prompt hierarchy so you can mark how much help each step needs and watch it fade. Physical help belongs on brand-new steps and gets faded one level at a time as soon as a lighter prompt works; if your child pulls away from having his hands moved, hand-under-hand, where his hands sit on top of yours, is a gentler alternative to hand-over-hand.

The potty first/then board

The first/then board is one of the simplest tools in the kit, and it fits toileting neatly: "First potty, then bubbles." The board shows two pictures side by side and makes the deal visible so you don't have to keep restating it.

Two rules make it work. The "first" is sitting, or trying, never producing, because the child can control whether he sits and can't fully control whether anything comes out. And the "then" has to be real and immediate, delivered the moment the sit ends; if the reward comes five minutes later, a young child won't connect the two. Keep a small basket of "then" items in the bathroom so the payoff is right there.

The sits chart (and when charts backfire)

Sticker charts can help, but they fail in a predictable way with autistic children. They reward the outcome (pee in the potty) instead of the behavior the child can actually choose (walking in, sitting, trying), so the child does everything right and gets nothing when his body doesn't cooperate. Some children also fixate on the chart itself, melting down over a missed sticker or the pattern being "wrong."

The chart in this pack rewards attempts: every sit earns a sticker, whether or not anything happens. (The kit's own sticker chart, on p. 180, does a different job: it tracks how independently each self-care routine was done, from "with help" to "I did it!", and it's the one to switch to once sitting is routine.) If your child doesn't care about stickers, skip the chart; the first/then board with a real reward does the same job. And if the chart becomes a source of stress, take it down. A tool that creates meltdowns in the bathroom is working against you.

How to mount and use them

The book's advice for all routine visuals applies to autism potty training visuals too: laminate them, hang them at your child's eye level (which in a bathroom is roughly where the toilet seat is), and put them right where the step happens. The sequence strip goes on the wall beside the toilet, within arm's reach of a seated child. The first/then board goes on the back of the door or the wall facing the toilet. The chart goes where the child sees it on the way out, and the door card hangs on the outside handle.

Introduce the visuals before you expect them to do anything: a few days of pointing to the strip during diaper changes ("Look, pants down") makes the pictures familiar before the first scheduled sit. When you use the strip, point and wait, count to five in your head, and only then add the one or two words printed under the picture, so the picture and your words match exactly, which is the simplified-language principle the book recommends for every routine.

Keep the same pictures everywhere, because a different sequence in a different bathroom is one of the quieter reasons toilet training stalls; if daycare uses another strip, give them yours or adopt theirs. For the rest of the method, including the schedule and the sensory setup, see the full guide to autism potty training tips. If your child needs to understand the whole experience before stepping into the room, start with a social story for toilet training and introduce the visuals a few days later.

The hard moments page explains how the book and kit approach the routines that keep breaking down, and the bundle includes the Daily Living Skills task analyses for toileting, handwashing, dressing, and toothbrushing.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I get autism potty training pictures for free?

The pack on this page (sequence strip, first/then board, sits chart, door card) is free through the email form. You can also make your own by photographing your child doing each step, which the book recommends because a child recognizes himself faster than he recognizes clip art. Print at roughly 3 by 3 inches per picture and laminate.

What should a toileting visual schedule for autism include?

The eleven steps in the kit's toileting task analysis: recognize the need, communicate or go, enter the bathroom, pants down, sit, use the toilet, toilet paper, stand up, pants up, flush, wash hands. Keep one picture and one or two words per step, in a fixed order, mounted at the child's eye level beside the toilet. Put extra detail for a single hard step on its own card so the main strip keeps the kit's order.

Do potty training charts work for autistic kids?

Sometimes. Charts work better when they reward sits and tries, because a child can choose to sit but can't control whether pee comes out. They backfire when a child fixates on the stickers or melts down over a missed one. If that happens, replace the chart with a first/then board and an immediate reward.