AboutMichelle Fattig Expertise I can answer questions about educational testing, autism, Asperger's Syndrome, ADD/ADHD, Special Education, IEP, Learning Disabilities, Sensory Processing, Parent Advocacy, Response to Intervention, living and parenting with disabilities, parent rights in special education, school psychology, and more. I cannot provide a medical diagnosis.
Experience I am a school psychologist, medical technologist, author of the Annie Books series: Experience Aspeger's Syndrome and Attention Deficits Through the Eyes of a Child, RTI facilitator, ILCD facilitator, parent advocate, presenter, and researcher. My children and I have Asperger's, ADD/ADHD, and learning disabilities.
Organizations National Association of School Pyschologists, American Medical Technologists, Learning Disabilities Association of Nebraska
Education/Credentials Ed.S. in School Psychology, doctoral studies in SPED Law, SPED Systems Enhancement Leadership, and doctoral candidate Education Leadership. MT(AMT) and MLT(ASCP)
Expert: Michelle Fattig Date: 2/27/2008 Subject: is this also a symptom
Question First let me say that I do not know that my son has any of these disorders, however, he does have several of the signs of them. My question is this, is late toilet training also common with any of these disorders? My son is 5 and ˝ and is still pooping and peeing his pants at least weekly if not more (except at night when he pees his pants nightly). We have been working with him on this since he was around 3 and to no avail. He now is in danger of being kicked out of kindergarten. We have an appointment set up with his doctor to see what could be the problem. When I Googled “son still pooping pants” several hits came up of people whose children have autism, ADD or ADHD. However, in the actual information sheets about these disorders I can’t find anything that discusses toilet training issues. Any ideas or other information you could give me would be helpful. I wouldn’t really surprise me if he had one of these disorders or associated disorders as I have epilepsy due to my brain not developing correctly (neuronal migration issues).
Answer There can be many causes for children to be delayed in toiletting, and children on the spectrum do tend to pose unique problems for parents during toilet training. Epilepsy is a well-known comorbidity of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with about one third of these children developing seizures over their lifetime. Interestingly enough, Autism is thought to be a disorder of neuronal migration with a genetic and intrauterine environmental etiology. Here are a couple of websites that may be helpful.
