When should you teach them to wipe bottom?

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After reading Kailluamom's post, I have been wondering when is the appropriate time (in general) to start teaching a child with ASD to wipe their bottom. My son is 5 and has PDD-NOS. I don't feel that he is ready to do this, but I don't want to put it off indefinitely and create problems down the line.

I think you can start trying now. Nudges, not pushes, and see where it goes (um, I suddenly got this vision from my words of the child taking the wiped poop and smearing it on the walls ... OK, that isn't exactly what I meant to imply but I'm now sitting here chuckling).

A sample nudge would be handing him the wad of TP and asking him, "would you like to try wiping yourself this time?" and talking him through the process. Maybe making a funny game of it.

They should be able to do it by 6. Honestly though I think this is probably something that should be integrated from the beginning. In other words, I don't think, that when potty training, you should always take the "let me do it for you" approach. You can help at first but it should really be part of the whole process.

I agree that this should be part of potty training from the get go. That said for kids not developing typically, that doesn't always work.

For my NT son, in the begining, I would just hand him the wipe and tell him "you try" he did it as matter of course - just like flushing and washing hands.

AS guy - it just didn't go that way. He would say OK, then just not do it. Or now, he just avoids the pot altogether, which is a real drag! (he holds it until he has a problem) Looking back, I wish that I had consatantly "paid" or rewarded that behavior from the start. Now, we are pretty far along. I thought you just model correct behavior, and they will get it eventually.

Every child is different, I really get that now! I wouldn't wait though, and do try to make it a good thing.

I would think that is best, and without making a big deal about having to do a little follow-up cleaning.

I suspect my grandchildren could be somewhere on the spectrum, and when the oldest one did not want to risk getting his hands dirty, my son-in-law just took him outside and washed him off with the water from a garden hose a few times to help motivate the child to make some effort of his own.

lol, image of you wiping yourself in front of your child... "see? like this!" hahahhah!! !

Ar har.... What I meant was show them how to do it themselves, by doing it on them and then asking them to do it.