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[Tyler's Mom]

I have a 3 1/2 year old son that was recently diagnosed with Autism/PDD a few weeks ago. He is currently in pre-school at a local public school in the area. We are having a few problems right now trying to find a babysitter for him after school, for school holidays and during the summer time. I have posted ads in the local newspaper and even called the school to see if they could help. We have had a few responses to the ads in the paper but when I tell them that he is non-verbal and is not potty trained they want to know what is wrong with him. My husband lost his job the same week my babysitter quit on me. Thank God he was able to stay home with him during the summer time. Now that school has started we were hoping my husband could find a job and help the financial burden we are now in. Does anyone have any suggestions about child care for my son? We live a small community so there aren't a lot of facilities or people around that can help us. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Tyler's Mom

[Dave]

We had a thread going on this a while ago, which had a few good ideas in it. Here is the link for that thread.
Previous Thread on Babysitting (http://www.autismtalk.net/showthread.php?threadid=41&perpage=15&pagenumber=2)

From my experience placing an ad in the newspaper with autism mentioned in it weeds out some of the people. Even then you get some who don't know what it is, but some people have an idea what it is when they call you. BTW, my child is almost seven and still non-verbal and not potty trained. We ended the summer with my sister keeping my kids as our promising sitter for the summer ran into various problems. It just happened she lost her job and needed some money, so I got pretty luck there. Also, I have forgotten about public facilities as they honestly don't have the resources to keep up with my son or care for him. Being in a small community, maybe you could contact your local church or churches and inform them of your need. That's all I can think of right now, maybe someone else can come up with something...