Potty training charts are excellent tools for potty training your child. Used to positively reinforce your toddler’s trips to the bathroom and their successful accident-free day, your child can gain confidence and reassurance as a “Big Kid.”

They range in design from a daily chart where you can note your child’s many successful trips to the bathroom to a railroad track with a prize at the end of the railway. Upon completion of the railroad track, many parents reward their child with a special treat to further encourage them to use the potty.

Regardless of the design, the main idea of potty training charts is to positively reinforce potty use to your child. The excitement and the pride they feel as you place another happy face sticker on their potty training chart gives them the confidence and the motivation to have another successful accident-free day.

The Smarts of Potty Training Charts

Positive reinforcement and a consistent rewards system do wonders for children. Just as a teacher places a gold star next to a child’s name for good behavior, a potty training chart is a virtual show-and-tell board of their bathroom achievements. They feel an unmatched sense of pride when they’ve completed a potty training chart and it is marked with signs of success.

Children quickly learn that there are rewards for positive behavior and consequences for negative. If they have an accident, they know you will still love them; however, they will suffer the cruel fate of not getting a sticker for using the potty. And to a child who is emotionally invested in the chart, it is indeed a cruel fate.

That is the brilliance of a potty training charts or the "smarts of the charts", if you will. It’s all about encouragement and positive reinforcement, not verbal punishment. You are rewarding good behavior and reminding them bad behavior does not warrant the same praise or response.

Choosing Your Chart

There are countless charts available for your child to use. The idea is to find one that appeals to your child’s personality as it becomes “their chart.” If you want to reward your child upon completion of their chart, a chart with a starting line and a destination, much like a railroad, is a wonderful option. Your child will beam with pride as they earn their special reward.

If you want to show quantity in your chart, then weekly or monthly potty training charts showing daily trips to the bathroom is a better choice. Here your child can see just how well they’ve done. And that kind of self-confidence is worth every sticker.

Click here to see a wide selection of Potty Training Charts