Sitting and Reading a Book

>>Our son HATES reading time. He will totally fight me, and will not sit and look at the book.

At first, my son was like this. I rewarded him for sitting with me for several seconds, gradually working up to a minute or more. Then I had a book sitting next to me, and rewarded him for sitting with me for just as long as before, with the book just sitting there. Then I moved the book to my lap. Then I had the OPEN book sitting on my lap, it was open to a page with a TRAIN on it LOL. Then I put a train toy on top of the train picture. Etc.

At first, we just looked at the picture. Then I pointed to it and said "train". Then I would say a few words, not just "train". All of these steps were accompanied with a reward [usually a cookie or other food item].

My son was very low functioning at the time.

My husband and I alternated so my son would know the procedure no matter who was reading.

Now my son will sit still for as long as I read [or my husband reads], as long as 30 minutes sometimes. Actually, now my son will be the one doing the reading! We still read to him, but he likes to read simple books by himself also.

Potty Training

I started potty training my "barely verbal" #2 [he knew a few single words and a few phrases, nothing related to the potty] when he was age 6. I noticed he would always pee [standing up] when I put him into the bathtub, so I started commenting on it. Right when he started, I would say "pee" and point. After quite a few days, he would laugh and flap when I said it. Then several weeks later, he started waiting until I said "pee" before doing it. So I made him wait a few seconds, gradually increasing to maybe 10 seconds, before I said it. Then I waited until HE said it to prompt me, before I said it. After a few months of this, just before the bath, I stood him in front of the toilet and said "pee". At first he just laughed, and then he would get into the bathtub and pee just like usual.

Then, just before the bath, I had #1 stand in front of the toilet while #2 watched, I said "pee" and #1 peed. Then I immediately stood #2 in front of the toilet and said "pee". It took a few days of this before #2 peed in the toilet after #1 had peed. [Lots of praise at each of these steps.] I faded out #1's presence, and soon #2 would pee in the toilet every day just before the bath.

Then I started bringing him to the toilet at other times during the day, said "pee", and after a few days he would pee whenever I brought him there and said "pee".

I gradually faded my presence. First I would tell him "go pee" and wait for a few seconds, then bring him to the toilet. Eventually, I could say "go pee" and he would go and do it without me.

After a while, he would say "go pee" himself and then go. After a while, he would go without notifying me.

The process did include flushing the toilet and washing hands after.

For errands/outings, I would take my son to a bathroom every hour. Even if this meant going home between stops. I eventually increased to time to 1:15, then 1:30, then 1:45, etc.

This entire process took about a year, from age 6 to age 7.

For BM training, my husband did most of it. My son would go to a certain place, usually behind the front door but sometimes other places, and get a certain look on his face and a certain body posture. When my husband saw the look and/or the posture, he immediately took my son into the bathroom and sat him on the toilet. As my husband puts it, it seemed like he did not know he was supposed to do the bm in the toilet, only the urine. But once he did the bm in the toilet and received a lot of praise, he figured it out. It took about 3x before he was reliable.