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I got hired as an Accompagnist/gardian for autistic kids

PJane92

Hi everyone,

This is my first time posting here. I am not affected by Autism although it's a cause that matters to me a lot. I just want to warn you guys that my English is not perfect, I usually speak French.

Friday, I got hired as an accompagnist/gardian for Autistic kids. I start by mid-September. I am probably going to be with a 17 year-old autistic kid, he doesn't speak but he is part of a regular class at school. I've been told that he likes to draw and that he has an interest in arts but I don't know more about for the moment. The coordinator of the program told me that he's not difficult. I will meet his parents and they have to accept me with the (little) experience that I have on the topic.

I've already been in contact with Autistic kids but never with Autistic teenagers. What should I expect? What kind of activities should I do with him? I've been given a list of suggestions of things I could do with him by the coordinator and I asked for advice to parents of Autistic children on french forums and they all told me that the list was pointless as long as I didn't have the profile of this kid and knew what his interests actually are. I'm happy because this job is closer from my actual career but I'm a little nervous because I don't have much experience. The coordinator seems to believe in me though.

Thanks ;)

PJ

Parents

  • The parents are right, not much point planning anything hes not interested in as he may just resent you for it. Personally I despise anything that I feel isn't relevant to me personally, such as a class booklet my entire year was forced to do, titled 'learning to learn'.....as though we didn't learn anything in all our years there.

    If he like art then I'd say be prepared for a lot of 'visual' learning activites to help him out, throughout high school I used to doodle in the margins or on other bits of paper and I'd associate what I'd drawn with what we'd been learning in that lesson.

    But again, you'll just have to get to know him and how he best learns, but what I would say is try to let him decide what he needs help with, some kids with ASD don't take kindly to being coddled over things they're capable of doing themselves. :)

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  • The parents are right, not much point planning anything hes not interested in as he may just resent you for it. Personally I despise anything that I feel isn't relevant to me personally, such as a class booklet my entire year was forced to do, titled 'learning to learn'.....as though we didn't learn anything in all our years there.

    If he like art then I'd say be prepared for a lot of 'visual' learning activites to help him out, throughout high school I used to doodle in the margins or on other bits of paper and I'd associate what I'd drawn with what we'd been learning in that lesson.

    But again, you'll just have to get to know him and how he best learns, but what I would say is try to let him decide what he needs help with, some kids with ASD don't take kindly to being coddled over things they're capable of doing themselves. :)

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