Course Overview

If toileting feels harder for your child than the parenting books suggest it "should" — you're in the right place. This 30-minute course shares seven sensory strategies you can use to support your child to feel more comfortable and confident with going to the toilet, whether you're working on early toileting or supporting a child who finds it tricky later on.

Going to the toilet asks a lot of a child sensorily. Noticing the body's signals (interoception), feeling balanced and secure on the toilet (vestibular), coordinating wiping (proprioception), tolerating textures and temperatures (tactile), managing the smell (olfactory), the bright bathroom lighting (visual), and the sudden sound of the flush (auditory) — that's all seven sensory systems involved in one short trip to the bathroom. For some children, one or more of those systems brings extra challenge.

In this course, Occupational Therapist Jessica Kirton shares seven evidence-based sensory strategies — one for each sensory system — that you can adapt to suit your child. None of the strategies require special equipment, and most can be introduced gradually as part of your normal routine.

Each strategy comes with the underlying sensory principle explained in plain language, so you'll understand why it might help — and feel confident adapting it. The aim isn't to push your child to "perform" toileting on a timetable; it's to gently work on whichever bits of the experience feel hardest, so toileting feels safer and less overwhelming over time.

What you'll explore

Across the course, Jessica covers seven strategies — one for each sensory system involved in going to the toilet:

  • Interoception — "stop and notice" activities to help your child recognise the body signals that mean it's time to go
  • Proprioception — awareness games for reaching, wiping, and coordinating the body during toileting
  • Tactile — gentle approaches for messy hand worries, soaps, wipes, and toilet paper textures
  • Vestibular — ways to help your child feel balanced and secure on the toilet (so it doesn't feel like falling)
  • Olfactory — adapting smells in the bathroom, with or without scented products
  • Visual — softening bright bathroom lighting that may feel overwhelming
  • Auditory — preparing for the sudden sound of the flush, which can be genuinely frightening for some children

Who this course is for

This course is designed for parents and carers of children up to age 10 — whether your child has a diagnosis (autism, ADHD, sensory processing differences) or no formal diagnosis at all. The strategies suit a range of stages: some families use them during early toileting, others find them helpful when toileting has become tricky later on (regression after illness, school changes, or other transitions).

Toileting is one of the topics where parents most often feel judged or pressured. Please know — many sensory-different children find toileting genuinely hard, and gentle, gradual approaches are more sustainable than pushing through.


A few things worth knowing

📥 Course notes & glossary are downloadable and yours to keep.

📄 Certificate of Attendance available once you've completed the short check at the end.

🕒 Take your time — toileting changes are best introduced calmly, without pressure. Any small step is genuine progress.

Talk it through 1:1 with an OT

Want personal support?

If you'd like to discuss your child's specific situation in more detail, you can book a 30-minute one-to-one online session with Dr Lelanie Brewer, Advanced Sensory Integration Practitioner. A focused, friendly conversation about what might genuinely help..
Find out about 1:1 OT coaching — £45 →
Dr Lelanie Brewer

Course curriculum

    1. How to use this course

    2. Meet the course leader, Jess Kirton

    1. Welcome

    2. Introduction to the course

    3. What are we going to cover in this course

    4. What this course does not cover

    1. Stop and notice (Interoception) What to do?

    2. Stop and Notice How to do it?

    3. When not to use this strategy?

    4. Theory underpinning Stop and Notice

    1. Reaching and Wiping Games- What to do?

    2. Awareness for wiping- How to do it?

    3. Theory underpinning awareness for wiping

    1. Messy hand worries- What to do?

    2. Messy hand Worries- How to do it?

    3. Theory underpinning strategy for messy hand worries

    1. What to do

    2. Vestibular How to do it?

    3. Theory underpinning Vestibular Strategy

About this course

  • 34 lessons
  • 0.5 hours of video content

Lecturer

Jessica Kirton

Occupational Therapist and Advanced Sensory Integration Practitioner

Jessica Kirton is an Occupational Therapist and Advanced Sensory Integration Practitioner with 15 years of clinical experience supporting children, young people, and their families. Since qualifying as an OT in 2011, Jessica has worked across the full range of UK settings — the NHS, private practice, special schools, mainstream schools, and specialist early years intervention — alongside voluntary work overseas. She has set up OT services across schools and held positions as Lead OT, giving her a depth of practical experience across both 1:1 therapy and the wider systems around children's lives. Her courses for Sensory Help Now bring that clinical experience into a parent-facing format: practical, neuro-affirming, and grounded in the sensory integration principles she teaches.