Finding day care providers in your local area is not a big challenge. These organizations can be found relatively close to home and each probably has great references and credentials. On the other hand finding day care providers that can accommodate your autistic child may be nearly impossible to find.

During my years as a therapist who specialized in autism I found that finding day care providers for autistic children is one of the biggest obstacles parents of autistic children face. Most day care providers do not have adequately trained staff for kids with special needs. They also lack resources and tools that are so valuable to caring for a child with autism.

I worked with a little girl who was severely autistic. She had limited language ability and she had many behavior problems. Both of her parents worked full time. Her mother had an hour’s commute to and from the office making her 40 hour work week flow over to a crippling 50 hours away from home. Fortunately, the child’s grandparents volunteered to serve are day care providers for their granddaughter.

The child’s grandparents were perfect for the family’s needs. However, the child’s grandmother began experiencing health problems that made serving as a daycare provider nearly impossible. The family was soon scrambling to find adequate day care providers that could meet their child’s needs.

They were fortunate enough to find a retired therapist who was more than happy to step out of retirement to take on the task of day care provider for the little girl. Many people who used to work in the field of autism “burn out” quickly. Many people think that the burn out is due to the stress of working with children who have special needs.

However, the burn out is commonly due to the excessive paperwork, inconvenient meetings and lack of communication between families, administration and staff. Until we establish day care providers that can meet the need of children with autism the best place to look for a qualified candidate would be through advertising in the paper.

People who used to work with children with autism are often drawn to the idea of taking on positions of day care providers for this population. I can say this from the perspective of a former therapist. We miss our children after we leave our jobs. Many of us would love an opportunity to work with children with special needs again as day care providers.