Help me find a tutor/teacher/therapist for a high-functioning autistic child.

November 19, 2007 7:08 PM

Help me find a tutor/teacher/therapist for a high-functioning autistic child.

(This question posted for a friend.)

We are looking to hire someone who can provide tutoring and therapy for our high-functioning autistic son, who is nearly 5 years old and was recently diagnosed. Our son has many strengths, but his difficulty in relating to people and his failure in understanding the rules and conventions of social interaction is causing him significant anxiety. We are looking for someone with strong credentials and references who might want to move near Little Rock, Arkansas for a part or full-time job working one-on-one with a little boy from a very financially stable family. We are willing to make a good offer if we can find the right person. We and our friends find our son delightful, and there is research suggesting that early intervention of this kind is very effective.

Surely there is some kind of listserv or other electronic bulletin board that we could post this on? Craigslist just doesn’t seem to be the right way to go (perhaps I am wrong about this). We obviously are looking for someone with education, experience, and/or empathy for special needs kids.

Please note that I am not actually posting this in an attempt to hire you, the reader (although if you're interested, let me know). Rather, I am posting this in an attempt to figure out how I most efficiently publicize that I am hiring for a quite specialized job.

posted by Mr. Justice to human relations (7 comments total)

A family member of mine had great success in finding a tutor/mentor style person for her son (with a cocktail of learning disabilities/difficulties in relating to people). From what I gather, she found the lady who they eventually hired through making it generally known that she was looking for somebody to a that specific job. She spoke to teachers at the school that he attended, people at her church, at the pre-school her other daughter went to, other people with children with special needs, her son's occupational therapist, and another friend of hers that ran a tutoring college, as well as people she knew from numerous other places. She was referred to and met with several people before she found the lady who she settled on and she was absolutely fantastic. It took her several months to find the right person, but the search paid off.

Good Luck with your search!
posted by cholly at 7:16 PM on November 19, 2007

Look for universities that offer Special Education programs with specialties in the areas you mentioned and contact the school about posting directly within the department for upcoming graduates. You might also ask about providing some kind of paid internship program for a student in progress or a recent graduate. You might also look on the Department of Education website for your state and see what kind of programs might be available to you through your local school districts. Good luck!
posted by 45moore45 at 7:20 PM on November 19, 2007

If there are any autism service providers or autism research programs in the area, you may want to contact them. Even if you're not interested in their specific services or in having your child involved in research, they'll probably be able to put you in touch with people who can provide the sort of services you're looking for.
posted by Stacey at 7:22 PM on November 19, 2007

Forgive me if the parents for whom you're posting the question have already tried this avenue, but I found the following contact information on Arkansas State University's site in a web search for autism and Little Rock and thought it might be of use:

Anna W. Vollers, Executive Director
Arkansas Autism Society
501 Woodlane, Suite 210 Annex
Little Rock, AR 72201
[phone]; [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]

Another potentially useful site from the same search: Arkansas Yellow Pages for Kids with Disabilities.

Best of luck to the family.
posted by bonobo at 8:17 PM on November 19, 2007

I would try Craig's List. It is free and it just might work. (i have seen other similar jobs posted in our local Craig's List.)
posted by metahawk at 10:09 PM on November 19, 2007

My understanding is that Yahoo Groups has a pretty lively bunch of parents of kids on the spectrum, and that they are grouped locally.
posted by padraigin at 11:17 PM on November 19, 2007

See if there is a F.E.A.T. (Families for Early Autism Treatment) in your area, They are very good at getting you set up. Since he is high functioning, you may want to try R.D.I. (Relationship Development Intervention) instead of A.B.A, as they focus on socailization and relationships
posted by aoxomoxoa at 9:12 AM on November 20, 2007