1. Compare and contrast: What are the differences and similarities in toilet training practices that you are familiar with and those described in articles and videos? Describe, in particular, how practices vary from one culture to another, and explain what factors contribute to those differences.
In my culture, most of the mothers do not start toilet training to their babies until one or one and half year. All the toilet training happen during the summer period, because in the summer there is no carpets on the floor if the mother want to let her baby with diaper so she can clean up easier if he peep on himself. We have the same way with Germans when the boys peeing while standing up tends to make a mess, little boys taught to sit down on the potty. We use the potty to train our babies when we hold them to pee. We spend a lot of time playing with our children in the restroom and waiting for them to make it.
The practices is vary from one culture to another. When the kids in China wear an onesie-style outfit with a split crotch, essentially pants that are open in the place that needs to be open when you use the bathroom. If a kid indicates that they need to go to the bathroom, the parents open up the slit and hold the child away from themselves and the kids goes on the ground. It does not seem to matter where they are or what they were doing. In Germany, kids are potty trained by age 3 because it is a requirement for starting school. Germans emphasize cleanliness and since peeing while standing up, for boys, tends to make a mess, little boys taught to sit down on the potty. In Indonesia, potty training is not really a word in rural Indonesia. Diapers are expensive and babies are free to urinate wherever they are standing or placed. Mothers and grandmothers just do a swift clean up after. Kids learn to use the bathroom quickly and in the appropriate places, whether that means the squatty potty, a ditch, or beside a rice field. In Pakistan, the floors in the south of Pakistan, Sindh, are concrete. This means kids are free to run around and pee wherever they want. Moms give them a bath at night and in the morning, take off their diapers and they are ready for the day. Eventually they learn to recognize the urge and use the toilet. The Netherlands Kids are potty trained between 2-3 years old in groups at daycare. There are little toilets and pots that all the kids use together, then they fill out sticker charts. Parents and daycare providers work together when the kids are ready and the process goes smoothly. Daycare staff do not encourage parents to push kids too early. But, kids must be trained by age four before they start school full time. In Sudan, potty training is done early. It helps that these mothers carry their babies on their backs often, so they either must figure out how to read their baby’s signals or they will get peed on! By age 2, most kids are potty trained, except those who can afford diapers. They take much longer. In UK, Grandmothers are eager for their grandchildren to potty train, but mothers lean more toward the ‘when they are ready’ attitude. There is a current trend toward more child-centered parenting and so there seems to be less pressure than in the past.
2. Describe your reactions to the different approaches to toilet training. What are your assumptions about what practices are most developmentally appropriate for children, and why? Are your assumptions based on your own cultural experiences or biases?
My reaction was shocked sometimes when I read about the toilet training practices way in China where if a kid indicates that they need to go to the bathroom, the parents open up the slit and hold the child away from themselves and the kids goes on the ground. It does not seem to matter where they are or what they were doing. The most developmentally practices for babies are to let children practice the toilet siting when they are young because children are very smart and the can learn and also toilet training is going to be easier when the child gets used to sit on the toilet to pee when he/she was young.
My assumptions based on the babies, I saw many babies from different culture. Children can learn easier when they are young and they scared to sit on the toilet when they are getting older.
3. Describe how you would approach families and children with whom you work whose toilet training practices differ from your own personal experiences or beliefs about what is “best” for children. How will you ensure that your interactions with them will be culturally responsive?
First, I would read about my classroom children’s culture and see how they do their toilet training. I would see what we have in common between our culture and their culture. Second, Print some articles and pictures for toilet training in our culture and give I would ask parents about that difference between our way and their way in toilet training, while being careful not to appear critical.it to the children’s family to look at it. Defined parents about the latest studies by researchers, about the best ways to use the toilet training for young children. I can ask the children’s families if they have any suggestions they would like to share with us.
