ASD and Daycare

oandmplus1

I posted recently that we started at a new daycare. The teachers are wonderful, but I just think DDs needs are too much. She finds every smooth surface possible to stim on including the tile floor where the kids eat. They try redirecting, offering her new toys, but it only lasts a few seconds and she is back to stimming. It obviously isn't fair for them to have to focus all their attention on her when there are so many other kids. They are more than willing to try, I just don't think they will be able to change the behavior.

Are there other moms out there who have had a toddler diagnosed with ASD and you needed childcare? What do others do? I guess we will look for a new nanny, we are just struggling finding someone available the hours we need for what we can afford.

kyethra

That is tricky.  One alternative might be to talk to day care about you paying for an assistant to come and work with DD for certain hours, like a couple a day, when there are busy times. 

MirandaHobbes

Have you tried looking for a SN daycare? I just assume there weren't any, and then it turned out there was one about a mile from our house. We got to the same point at our daycare; DS was off doing his own thing and the teachers got tired of redirecting him to the group so he was starting to slip through the cracks. Our dev. pedi suggested the SN daycare. It made me really sad to leave- the teachers were all really great.

august06mom

Is she in EI? DS2 has a special instructor who will now accompany him for three hours a day, three times a week. It's wonderful because he'd otherwise be content to just quietly spin wheels in the corner.

Zeidy01

I hired one of the aides from my kids old school. She's ABA certified and in school for special ed teacher.
You may want and ask local special needs school and see if anyone is available.

oandmplus1

I havent seen any SN daycares, I have looked online and asked around a lot. She is in EI, but they did not offer that to us, we only get 1 therapist 1 hour a week in our home. Maybe they would be willing to let us pay for them to have extra help in the room though if we cant find a nanny

mrsdeanna

I found someone thru Care.com . She is a behavioral therapist and has a daughter the same age as DS1. So not only was he getting to socialize with another kid, he was getting some one on one therapy. I take him to her house, twice a week for 4 hours at a time. You could find someone to come to your house. Only downside is she is pricey.

MirandaHobbes

It might be worth a call to your local autism society or similar (Arc, etc)- I couldn't find our daycare via google because it was listed as more of "day treatment". Even the sign in front of the building (which I had driven past a million times) just said "Special Needs Therapy". In our metro area I know that one of the children's hospitals offers some sort of SN daycare as well.

And another vote for Care.com- I used them when I was looking for an occasional sitter for DS. I signed up for a one month membership and made a bunch of calls.

oandmplus1

Thanks for the suggestions!