Why a potty training game: short, calm and without rewards

Why I chose a game

Children aged two to four learn through play and by copying others. The way to the toilet has lots of small steps: noticing the need to pee, leaving play, walking there, pulling pants down, sitting, flushing and washing hands. In the game, your child tries them with a little character and a friend, calmly, without hurry and without anyone judging. When the real potty comes, they already know the way from playing.

Research on how young children learn from apps describes four things that help: the child is thinking while playing, nothing distracts them for no reason, the content connects to their own life, and someone close is with them. The game is built on those four things.

We cannot avoid screens, so let them give something

I am against children aged two to four spending hours in front of screens. At the same time, I know that in today's world screens cannot be avoided completely. I do not want to add screen time for your child. I want those few minutes to mean something.

The World Health Organization recommends at most one hour of screen time a day for children aged 2 to 4, and less is better. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises the same and adds two things: choose high-quality content and watch together with your child.

Why the games are so short

Each game takes a few minutes and practises one thing. Nothing in it happens just to keep your child in front of the screen longer. The game loops until you stop it: tap ∞ under the speaker, and the game finishes the round and calmly stops. You decide when it ends.

For two-year-olds and four-year-olds

The game is played by two-year-olds who cannot read yet and have small fingers, and by four-year-olds who want to try everything themselves. I had to think of both. That is why everything works by tapping big areas, and pictures, sound and gestures talk to the child. There is nothing to read. The friend in the game talks with its body, so children understand the game in any language. A four-year-old tries more in the same game: leads the friend to the potty, packs a backpack for a trip, sings to a tree.

The game is interactive: besides tapping, children blow, sing, hum and talk. Your child blows and the dandelion flies apart, hums and the tree blossoms, says “plop” and their breath turns into bubbles. Blowing and humming are breathing exercises of the kind speech therapists do with children: they teach a long, calm out-breath. On the potty it helps the body let go, and it is useful whenever a child needs to calm down. Singing also teaches the rhythm of speech, as the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) advises parents.

No points, rewards or losing

There are no points, stars, stickers, levels to unlock or timers in the game. Nothing flashes and nothing rains down as a reward. When something does not work out, nothing happens and your child simply tries again. They get praise for effort, and the reward is that it works on its own.

Many games for young children are built to keep them in front of the screen as long as possible. A 2022 study looked at apps played by children aged 3 to 5, and only one in five had no manipulative tricks, such as a character that looks sad when the child wants to leave, a countdown, or lures to play longer and to buy things. I wanted a game without artificial dopamine hits, one your child can calmly walk away from.

Calm games without shouting or violence

In the game nobody shouts, nobody fights, nothing is scary and nothing is rushed. The picture is simple and does not change every few seconds. The colours are soft and the movement is slow. When a round ends, the game calms down.

In one study, nine minutes of a fast-paced cartoon were enough for four-year-olds to do worse right afterwards on tasks of attention and self-control than children who watched a calm programme or drew.

Music you can bear too

I chose the music so that it is calm and so that you can listen to it too, even the tenth time you hear the game. One tap mutes it. The games that listen to breathing and singing have no music on purpose, so the microphone hears your child.

A game for your child, guides and videos for you

I connected everything so that both your child and you learn something. Your child plays, and for every game you find an explanation: what it practises, why, and what to do at home. There are also short videos on YouTube, each about two minutes long, a potty readiness check and an honest comparison of potty training methods.

The parent sections sit behind a ring you have to hold for a moment, so your child does not tap their way to YouTube or into the settings. The game can also speak with your voice: record a few sentences and the game plays them to your child. The recordings stay on your phone only (privacy).

What is in the game

• Little house. Stop playing and go: your child builds a tower of blocks, you hold “call” and your recorded voice plays.
• Bathroom. The toilet routine step by step: pants down, sit, get dressed, flush and wash hands.
• Kitchen and tummy. Noticing the need to pee: your child gives the character a drink and sees the bladder fill up like a balloon.
• Night. Not being afraid of the dark and finding the way to the potty at night by little lights.
• Potty buddy. This time your child leads: they notice the cuddly toy needs to pee and take it to the potty.
• Potty at home. Sitting calmly on the real potty: the phone stands in front of your child and the character sits with them.
• On a trip. A strange toilet and a loud hand dryer: your child switches the dryer on themselves, first quietly, then louder.
• Garden: Singing Tree. While your child sings or hums, the tree buds, blossoms and grows apples.
• Garden: Dandelion. A long, slow out-breath: the seeds fly across the meadow, and where they land, a flower grows.
• Garden: Fireflies. It is dark in the forest and the buddy is scared: when your child hums, fireflies light the path to the little house with the potty.

More calm games are gradually being added to the Garden.

Who is behind the game

I am Zdeny; in Amsterdam's daycares the children call me Juf Zdeni. I am not a paediatrician or a child psychologist. If your child is in pain, holds in poop, or potty training has not worked for a long time, please talk to your child's doctor. I make the game and the guides myself, for free, with no ads and no tracking code. More about me.