Jennifer O’Toole is an award-winning Aspie, author and mom.
She also runs Asperkids, an insider’s guide to loving, understand and teaching children with asperger syndrome.
Jennifer shares her unique teaching strategies and parenting perspectives on hiring an extra set of helping hands for her 3 asperkids in this interview.
Q: What was your biggest challenge in hiring paraprofessionals to work with your children?
I’ve hired an extra set of hands to help out with the kids around the house. Knowing it would be surprisingly tough, I asked our new helper to take the kids to the driveway and clean up the car…
45 minutes later they came back upstairs with nothing done. It just didn’t end up happening. The lovely lady I hired didn’t realize how much planning, coordination, and effort it would take to get in there with the kids and get the task done.
It takes some training and teaching before they can handle working with 3 asperkids. I educated the helper to work with my children on sensory issues, task organization, and theory of mind.
I was nicely surprised when I found the helper and my child making a salad just for me. This didn’t happen overnight. The learning curve can be long; this was a 6 month long process of breaking down steps, modelling, then practicing until an actual salad resulted.
It was great to see them using the kitchen space in such an engaging and educational way. You can learn more about optimizing your child’s living space in my book: The Asperkid’s Launch Pad.
Q: Do you have any advice for parents hiring helping hands for their children on the spectrum?
As parents, we tend to feel defensive and exhausted because of the pressure we get from professionals or teachers on our children. But you can’t be bullied. Trust your gut.
Make sure your children understand that you’re not bringing in extra help because they are too much for you. Take that pressure off your child.
There’s always a learning curve when you hire someone new so be patient.
Jennifer’s Tips for Hiring Helping Hands
- Find someone open minded and patient.
- Spell out your expectations and set boundaries.
- Don’t underestimate safety issues and make sure they keep an eye on your kids the whole time.
- Use your child’s special interests to create learning opportunities.
- Set the helper up for success.
- Give the helper constructive activities to work with your child.
Jennifer’s upcoming book, The Asperkid’s Game Plan, is a perfect place to find great constructive activities for the paraprofessional or helper to work on with your child. These fun lessons will inspire and motivate parents, educators, and therapists to make purposeful play a part of every child’s day.
You can pre-order Jennifer’s new book: The Asperkid’s Game Plan.
Leave your questions and comments below.
About Catherine Pascuas
Catherine is the founder of Edx Autism.
Check out Jennifer’s article here: “Babysitters, Mother’s Helpers…plus Aspie – Oh MY!”