How to Set up a Reward System for Potty Training

Potty training requires consistency and patience from both you and your toddler. You can help keep your child motivated to use the potty by setting up a potty training reward system.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Rewards
• Posterboard
• Markers
• Stickers

1. Choose a reward. Pick something inexpensive that your child really enjoys, such as stickers or trinkets. It is even better to let her pick out her own reward.
2. Take your child with you to buy a piece of brightly colored posterboard.
3. Create and set up a potty training chart to keep track of your child's successes. Use a marker to divide the chart into days of the week. Leave plenty of room on each day for multiple potty trips.
4. Tell your toddler that you are making a chart to help her use the potty. Show her how you divided the chart into days, and tell her that you will mark off when she goes alone. Tell your child that if she uses the toilet a set number of times each day, she will earn a reward.
5. Give the reward immediately after your child uses the potty by himself. A delayed reward will not have the same effect.
6. Praise your child when she succeeds. This is perhaps the greatest reward of all.

Tips & Warnings

• Know the difference between a reward and a bribe. Using a reward that follows the desirable behavior is much better than offering a bribe. The major difference lies in the fact that a bribe comes before the desired behavior.
• To save some money, wrap each reward your child will receive. Then, use the rewards repeatedly by wrapping them again.
• Make sure your child does not think you are just handing out rewards. Rather, your child should understand why he is getting the reward. Otherwise, the connection between the potty and the reward will not be clear.
• Avoid using candy or other food as a reward for potty training purposes. Too many snacks can set your child up to develop cavities, diabetes and obesity.
• Beware that a reward system will not work if your child is simply not ready to be potty trained. A child needs a certain amount of motivation and some motor skills before she is up to the challenge of potty training.