The following research article from the Pediatrics Journal (click on the link below for full details) provides some very interesting findings on the age of readiness, as related to boys vs girls, for toilet training. It appears that the majority of toddlers are not ready for toilet training until after their second birthday. Refer in particular to the results and conclusion sections of the abstract (as extracted and shown below), if you don't want to digest the whole article!
Sequential Acquisition of Toilet-Training Skills: A Descriptive Study of Gender and Age Differences in Normal Children
ABSTRACT
Results. The study included 126 girls and 141 boys; 88% were white. Parents submitted a total of 10 741 weekly surveys (range: 1–73; median: 49 per child). Girls demonstrated toilet-training skills at earlier ages than boys. The median ages for "staying dry during the day" were 32.5 months (95% confidence interval: 30.9–33.7) and 35.0 months (95% confidence interval: 33.3–36.7) for girls and boys, respectively. The median ages for readiness skills for girls and boys, respectively, were as follows: "showing an interest in using the potty," 24 and 26 months; "staying dry for 2 hours," 26 and 29 months; "indicating a need to go to the bathroom," 26 and 29 months. There was a marked concordance in the sequences in which girls and boys achieve individual skills. In addition, the interquartile ranges of the toileting skills varied from 6.9 to 11.4 months in girls and from 7.5 to 14.6 months in boys. Conclusions. In this study population, girls achieve nearly all toilet-training skills earlier than boys, including successful completion. Most children do not master the readiness skills until after the second birthday. The range of normalcy for the attainment of individual skills may vary by as much as a year.
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