Vermont Continence Project Online Resource Library
Promoting positive, person-centered, science-driven toileting supports for Vermont’s children and youth.
Most children and youth spend many hours a day at school, but school teams aren’t sure of the best ways to support their students’ incontinence. This evidence-based guide includes recommendations on this topic, as well as several appendices covering goals, documentation, accommodations, and a planning template.
VT Continence Project School Based Best Practice
The Vermont Continence Project supports many children and young adults with encopresis, also known as fecal incontinence. The impact of long-term fecal incontinence on a young person can be significant and traumatic. We created this guide to help teams plan the best care and support possible for this condition
On the Vermont Continence Project, we often ask questions about how a team prompts a learner to go to the toilet: Do they take him/her by the hand? Tap them on the shoulder and point? Use this chart with your toilet-teaching team to find the right level of prompting to let your learner know your expectations. We generally recommend that adults use the least invasive prompt they can, as this tends to decrease push back from the toilet learner.
We work with many families whose children wear diapers or pull-ups, and the parents are spending quite a lot of their money on these supplies. Many are surprised to hear that they may be able to get some — or all — of those diapers for free!
If your child has Medicaid for their insurance (either Dr. Dynasaur or Katie Beckett program), ask your pediatrician if your child is eligible for free diapers. You can see the details of this program in the Diaper-Family-Fact-Sheet.
There is so much more to toileting than just continence! This guide shows many of the other skills we support teams to build for their toilet learners. If your toilet learner is resisting (or having a hard time with) continence skills, consider shifting your focus to some of these other skills for a while.
Download the guide (.pdf)
