Tutor for highly functioning Austic boy

Sorry to revive a months-old thread, but I was on the hunt for similar info. I'm also a tutor, and I wanted to offer some advice for finding a tutor for your son who has Autism. One thing I've found helpful when working with autistic kids is being upfront about the diagnosis during the pre-getting-to-know phase with potential tutors. It's also important to communicate any specific needs your son may have so that the tutor can be better prepared. For example, if your son struggles with verbal communication, ask the tutor how they plan to deal with that. Another thing to consider is whether to go with an agency or a private tutor. Both have pros and cons, but the most important thing is finding a tutor your son likes and feels comfortable with. Lastly, I wanted to mention that I recently discovered an English language learning game on ne-lite.com that might be helpful for your son.

Can your LA suggest an agency with that kind of expertise. Sometimes they hire them themselves for kids they are struggling to find school placements for.

Hi, I am nowhere near Essex but I am probably autistic (awaiting assessment), a tutor, an elder sibling to an autistic brother, and a tutor to several autistic kids, so I thought I could give you a couple of ideas of what to look for for a tutor for an autistic kid because I've had a few too many kids come to me as their 4th+ tutor because the others were not prepared to deal with the traits.

Don't necessarily put the autism on any adverts you may put out for a tutor, but do discuss it with anyone in the pre-getting to know phase.

Make anything that you know your kid needs clear to a potential tutor. I have one kid whose parent constantly refers talking to the SEN team about getting info for the sessions, but doesn't actually tell me what their kid needs, which means I've had to work solely on trial and error, which just takes time and makes it harder to form a trusting relationship quickly when you keep messing up. 

If your kid has issues with verbal communication, especially when anxious, ask a potential tutor how they'd deal with that. I had many friends growing up that had periods of mutism or selective mutism so when I first encountered it in a kid I was ready to try alternative forms of communication (writing, thumb gradient to show understanding, using fingers to show numbers in maths,) but when doing volunteer tutoring several of the other tutors were completely perplexed when having children that were quiet or didn't want to talk. If your tutor can only gage understanding from your kid talking, maybe don't take them.

Autism can sometimes mean you don't know what are appropriate topics to talk to tutors about. Goodness knows between me, my brother, my friends and my pupils there are enough examples there to make a point. If this is something that your kid struggles with, talk to your kid and any potential tutor. If your tutor is experienced with autism they may be prepared for this, but either way you may want to make a protocol for when the pupil derails the conversation with a detailed story about the time his little sister took her nappy off and pooped all over the house including on the dog, complete with descriptions about what exactly the poo felt like under his feet. He'll make a great descriptive writer one day if he harnesses that attention to detail. But yeah, prepare the tutor for that and arrange an outcome (do you want to know? do you not?) 

One of the big questions in tutoring is agency vs private. There are pros and cons for both. Agencies are more likely to produce tutors with DBS checks (although many private tutors will have these too) and are quite possibly going to be more prescribed in what they offer when. On the other hand private tutors may not have all the qualifications (such as various forms of teaching certificates) that many agency teachers have. But also don't take any qualifications at face value and feel free to enquire and ask more specific questions (I would have been excited to be ask tbh). Try many until you find one you like.

Finally, listen to your kid, please. Finding the right tutor can take time, and only your child can tell you how he likes the new tutor and whether he feels he's learning and inspired to learn. A tutor your student likes will make far more progress with them than one that has to struggle through their resentment for being there. Take it from a tutor who had a couple of students who definitely didn't want to be in tutoring. 

Hope any of this helps. I'm uncertain about posting links to any sites where you could find some as I'm not sure whether it's allowed under the forum rules, but if it is I'm happy to give you some links.