Little rascals and Crayola kiddies, I totally understand your techniques, and they are quite commonly used but I don't personally go or think about it the same way. I very strongly believe in following the child's lead in this case, and not the parents who really are wanting this to happen at a certain time or when their child gets to a magical age number in which they feel they must know by then. Every child is different, and their development is very different,(in potty training you have to consider both physical and mental, even at 3 when they fully understand everything) and I feel like potty training is a huge stepping stone which only they can or should be determining to do once they are ready. I think it is our job to provide them with the knowledge of how to do it by showing them the steps and reminding them that poops and pees should go in the toilet, but in the end I don't think a child is ready until they start feeling uncomfortable at being wet and/or asking to go themselves.
To give an example,
I've just recently had two situations with two different children. 1st child was being strictly guided by their parents to be potty trained (boy was 2.5) and the 2nd family wasn't even thinking about it. One family started in Nov. with their son going into pull ups, whom after 3 days I suggested that he was not ready, but they insisted on continuing. (i personally felt this was a waste of their money, the pull ups, because he was not reacting to them at all even with the so called "wet alert" they had. December came and they decided to go cold turkey to underwear. And they came a week later in New year saying he was fully trained.
This was BS. What happened was that they were fully successfull in training themselves at putting him on every hour. The boy himself had no interest in it whatsoever. But we went with what the parents wanted and did everything they asked. Weeks went by and I started to notice changes in his behaviour and more and more resistance(which i mentioned to the parents for a second time that I think we should hold off for a bit as he wasn't showing he was ready). So then the bribes came in. Which worked for a bit. but then, once he got used to them or bored of them, his negative behaviour increased. Resistance to being even put on the toilet became impossible. He would shriek against going at which point I mentioned to the parents for the 3rd time that I REALLY didn't think he was ready, to which they responded that I was trying to get out of it. So they got let go and had to find a daycare, where i am sure, that unless their boy asks, they're not just going to automatically take him to the toilet every hour as they have dreamed of someone doing. If he doesn't ask, and he has accidents every day, they just automatically tell parents their child isn't ready and thats it. They go into diapers.
So here's my second child. Around the same time this boy was acting out against it. This little girl decided to start asking her parents to go pee pee every time she had to go. Just like that. They had shown her once or twice before, they weren't training her at all, and she just demanded it herself, and she is the same age. So they just followed her lead. And she naturally started asking to go poop as well. They would still bring me her in diapers until after about 2 weeks of her having asked every time, I suggested that I work on it with her as well at our house cause she hadn't been asking me yet, and I suspected that she just needed me to tell her and show her myself that it was ok to go at our house to and to ask me to take her. So it took one day for me to show her, and she is totally there. And that's how I think its supposed to go. No stress. No mess. Just let them show you or tell you that they are ready. Its simple and gradual yet happens really quick once they get it. Kind of like when they learn to feed themselves. You show them a spoon, how to hold it and use it and scoop the food and put it into their mouths, but they are ultimately in control of learning how to feed themselves.