Toggle navigation
Toggle navigation
Home
DCUM Forums
Nanny Forums
Events
About DCUM
Advertising
Search
Recent Topics
Hottest Topics
FAQs and Guidelines
Privacy Policy
Your current identity is: Anonymous
Login
Preview
Subject:
Forum Index
»
Au Pair Discussion
Reply to "Special Needs"
Subject:
Emoticons
More smilies
Text Color:
Default
Dark Red
Red
Orange
Brown
Yellow
Green
Olive
Cyan
Blue
Dark Blue
Violet
White
Black
Font:
Very Small
Small
Normal
Big
Giant
Close Marks
[quote=Anonymous]Cheap labor and Nanny vs. Aupair debates aside... Yes, you can find an au pair willing to work with a special needs child who maybe has adhd or level 1 autism or something similar. It will not be easy to match or to retain the au pair so think long and hard about hosting. We hosted au pairs to handle childcare and our son was diagnosed as level 1 autism when he was 3 and we were already hosting. Our au pairs have been great. We've had one rematch with AuPairCare because their recruiter told the applicants to match with the first offer and rematch when you get here if you are unhappy. She didn't wanted to be living in a beach house somewhere and rematched to find her dream lifestyle. Be 100% up front. Do not gloss over the difficulties in order to look more promotable as a family. Pay more than the average stipend (we didn't, but I hear it helps now. We gave bonuses throughout the year). Keep the schedule with shorter days and weekends free, if possible. Don't ask for laundry or straightening kids rooms Offer a car for them to drive. The bottom line is to treat your au pair well and make sure for the presumed 'extra effort' of a special needs child, they are compensated with the extras. We treated our au pairs as family - really, we did. None of this will matter if your child truly needs a lot more care than what an au pair can provide. We needed someone with extra patience. The ability to understand an autistic child may want to play a lot of minecraft and eat the exact same thing daily. That he may become upset if things change or if he feels you are anxious. We hosted au pairs who had siblings who were on the spectrum or one whose parents were OT specialist for autistic people. They 'got' it. Good luck with your search. It wasn't the cheapest option for childcare and much more than a nanny longterm. It was worth it because my child did better knowing a care provider better than if they lived elsewhere. Interacting more with them. The au pairs who treated us like a job and didn't interact other than chidlcare hours had a harder time with him. Luckily, he's old enough to stay solo at home now, but au pairs were super helpful.[/quote]
Options
Disable HTML in this message
Disable BB Code in this message
Disable smilies in this message
Review message
Search
Recent Topics
Hottest Topics