When in a group the student may have been imitating or referencing & coordinating with his peers. These are great skills and ones worth fostering. That said it makes sense that you would like him to also be able to go potty without peers. His acting out behaviors may be due to many reasons: he may have been anxious being in the potty without peers, he may have felt anxious with you, he may have forgotten the routine without another child modeling and by acting out he was drawing attention away from him embarrassment over having forgotten, or he may have wanted to get more attention from you than he thought he was getting.

Identifying what you think precipitated his acting out will help you brain-storm a solution to the problem. If it is an anxiety issue, either about going potty without peers or going potty with you, using a social story or talking to the child in advance of a trip to the potty may be helpful. If you think he may be forgetting what to do, provide him with a visual mini-schedule that goes through each step of his potty routine, or provide verbal prompting for each step. If you think he was trying to get attention, you could head off this attention seeking by praising him for walking nicely with you in the hallway and by praising him for going through the potty routine. Make sure to ignore behaviors not part of the routine and only praise the behaviors you want to reinforce (this includes giving very minimal attention even if he has an accident and you need to change his clothes). You might also try telling him “If you go potty nicely, you will get to have a snack (or whatever other reward you usually use), but if you take too long or do not follow directions, you will not get a snack” as more incentive to be successful.

By carefully looking at what goes into his having a positive potty experience, and how that differs from what he does when he goes potty only with you, I think you will be able to minimize the acting out and help him be successful in the potty even when he goes without peers.

You can try using Icons for when he needs to go to the bathroom. The first question I need to act is why are you taking the child to the bathroom when you say he is able to go with his class? He may not trust you so that might be the acting out part and he is showing his frustration by having an accident.

if he can go at home thena maybe you are doing something differant or it maybe that he doesnt like public restroomss…. first talk to mom and dad does he use public restrooms spontanously, then ask them what rituals does he do. My son has autism for the longest time no matter where he was he would walk out with his pants down he still does… maybe you can have an extra bathroom break with a small group maybe 1-3 extra kids go to depends on age. I wouldnt reccomend this for kids over 8. Something happened in route or was differant he thought he needed the class to go to the bathroom … you can also try a social story that will outline everythings to him like…… When tommy needs to use the restroom he can ask Ms ?? and they will walk out the door down the hall past whatever??? then tommy can go into the bathroom by himself like a big boy….

Talk to the parents,there may be bathroom issues you are not aware of.

Also,carefully think about the time you took him and he had an accident.Was someone in the stall he liked? Maybe someone just flushed and the noise was a problem.Maybe there was no toilet paper in the stall and he didn’t know how to communicate it to you. The reason behind behaviors are not always easy to figure out ,maybe a behavior therapist can help,and the parents.

Have you tried picture support to help the student understand the procedures of the restroom and who is taking him to the restroom.

You can make it with boardmaker. If you do not have boardmaker software take digital photos of the bathroom sequence (don’t have students in the photos or people). Also take photos of the staff supporting the student. You can then import the photos into MS Word or Paint to crop and place words to help with explaining the photos and sequence.