How To Know If Your Child Is Ready To Be Potty Trained

Many parents are eager to potty train their children as soon as possible, but it's important to ask: Is your child actually ready? Although there is no one-size-fits-all answer, there are certain indicators to watch for. 

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Guide to Toilet Training (2003), parents should watch for readiness in three specific developmental areas: physical, cognitive and emotional. 

So let’s take a closer look at what’s required in each area.

Is Your Child Physically Ready?

Before a child can be potty trained, they must have certain physical skills. We might not realize it as adults, but babies aren’t able to control the sphincter muscle that opens and closes their bladder and rectum (hence why they wear diapers). Until your child has the physical ability to do so, attempting potty training will be a waste of time.

To use the bathroom independently, your little one must be able to physically:

• Sense when they need to eliminate
• Delay elimination long enough to get to the potty
• Sit independently on a potty chair

Can your child do that? If so, it’s time to go to the next step.

Is Your Child Cognitively Ready?

To actively participate in potty training, children must understand what they're supposed to do and be able to communicate it. So they must be able to:

• Associate the need to eliminate with using the potty
• Understand simple instructions
• Signal an adult when they need to go

These indicators might not be super concrete in the early stages of potty training. However, signaling to an adult doesn’t need to be complicated — even a simple sign is sufficient.

Is Your Child Emotionally Ready?

Your child must have some social skills when they are ready to learn how to use the potty. Using a diaper is much easier than potty training, but your child needs to want to cooperate — even subtly.

According to the AAP, look for these signs to see if your little one is emotionally ready to potty train:

• A desire for independence and self-mastery
• An interest in imitating others
• A desire for approval

Anything that increases their willingness to embrace potty training automatically creates the emotional readiness that the AAP says is essential for this next step in their development. Reading books, using certificates and other special supplies can increase your little one’s emotional willingness to start using the potty over diapers.

What Age Do These Skills Normally Appear?

It’s easy to assume your little one doesn’t have the physical, cognitive and emotional skills to be potty trained. But the average one-year-old already displays most of the skills necessary to start the process. 

Before the invention of the disposable diaper, children were routinely trained by 18-months-old. So it's clear that these abilities are available at least by early in their second year of life. 

If you're dreading the potty training stage, don't worry — many parents do! However, if your child is developmentally ready, it doesn’t need to be difficult or treated like a chore.

I recommend the course created by Lovevery,  Potty Learning. Whether you’re about to start potty learning or already trying, this course has the proven paths you need, plus tools to help your child tap into their intrinsic motivation and take the lead. You’ll learn when to start, how to build momentum, and how to increase their independence over time.

If your child meets all or most of these criteria, then it might be time to start potty training. Parents can rest assured that their children will be using the potty in no time with the help of this course.