Sitter services? (functioning, mental, disabilities, developmental)

[NC211]

Hello, we have a sweet 7 year old little girl who is non-verbal but very engaging and enjoyable to be around. But, does require attention and not really in the range of your typical neighborhood teenager to babysit every now and then.


We had someone that we found through ABA that we really liked (and so did our daughter) who would come over and watch her for a few hours here and there to give mom and dad a break. But we lost her when she moved away. Honestly, we had several through ABA, but the program just seemed to be a revolving door, stepping stone in career, for the care givers. The constant "getting attached" and then disappearing routine turned us off with the whole setup. Was making our little girl sad too when she began to realize that who she liked, was no longer coming to see her.


So, we're on the hunt to go a different route instead to find someone a little more steady and reliable. And we're willing to pay for it. But, we don't know where to start to look. I've heard some good things about care.com in general, but wife is a little hesitant. We'd obviously vet the individual heavily ourselves, and would focus more towards the adult/stable groupings instead of the younger crowd.


Anyone ever dealt with care.com for something like this? Or does anyone have a better suggestion on what path to explore? Cost isn't a problem here (well, within reason of course)?


Thanks!

[AnywhereElse]

Have you tried asking at her school about who they might know that who does "respite" care? Here, agencies handle that specific type of care for children/people with disabilities, and they generally have some training and background checks already in place.

Having a child with Down syndrome, now thankfully an adult, being nonverbal and resistant to change, I have found that it works best when he has a "set" of caregivers as it was traumatic for him when a favored one did leave for a different job. Even now, as an adult that just entered a day program, I have warned them to rotate staff, because if someone leaves, it is difficult for him and causes behavioral issues. They are working at this. Your daughter may not be like this, but I thought it was worth mentioning as we learned so many things the "hard" way.

You are talking about a job that has and will always have high turnover, unless you have a relative willing and anxious to fill the spot.

Care.com? I just looked at that last week for a friend who was looking for someone to clean an apartment before she moved in, it seemed to be a very mixed bag. I would say, talk to the school, maybe the psychologist/counselor and see if they know of an agency or person.

I don't know the functioning level of your child, there might be a chance that if you have an agency that works with people who have developmental disabilities, that you might call them and let them know you are looking for someone to care for your daughter a few hours here and there as many don't get full-time hours at the programs where they work and do a little caretaking on the side. Again, these would be people who have had background checks.

This is just really my best guess on how one might approach this.

[Marie Joseph]

I lucked out by talking with the school and found a retired special ed teacher who was willing to sit with my daughter.

She was absolutely wonderful and had the patience of a saint!