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What do you think of a babysitter for the autistic?

Would parents trust a babysitter with their autistic child?
-would they prefer the babysitter to be trained by red cross in First Aid or other applicable course?

What would the babysitter do to entertain an autistic child? Certain games or activities to help the child?

Thanks... just curious

Public Comments

1. they would probaly allow a normal babysitter rather than pay extra but they will want to know the person is old enough and responsable enough.
as for games just normal games and stuff but make sure you keep it structured and the child knows what to expect.
good luck

2. First, it depends on how severely autistic the child is. Whether he or she can talk and communicate at all or whether he or she simply has a harder time communicating. Not all children with autism are completely nonverbal and completely unresponsive to outside stimuli. If the child were severe, I'd say the baby sitter needed to have experience in communicating with and handling autistic children. If he or she is mild-moderate, I'd say a baby sitter was okay. My brother is mild-moderately autistic, and he can be babysat pretty well, although sometimes he has fits and such. He's nine... Now, playing games with an autistic child, that is a bit difficult. They generally have little idea of taking turns and rigid ideas of what is fun and what is not. Many love to watch TV or play on the computer. Autistic children also have obsession, deep-rooted obsession with a very narrow range of things that are the only thing the find interesting. My brother's happens to be WWII in the pacific and WWII in Italy. And star wars.
Certainly, training first aid and CPR is in order for a babsitter, especially in younger children. Autistic children, particularly the more severe, may act much less mature than other children their age.
The parents should explain to the person who is watching the child how to handle them, from making transitions to how to talk to them, of any things that set of fits in the child, bedtime, schedule (autistic children need the structure found in a schedule) and other details of their life, such as what they will or will not eat (some autistic children are on special diets that parents at least claim that help manage their symptoms, and others, such as my brother, are simply very picky eaters.) I don't know about the special diets, I mean, if they are very picky eaters, how you get them to eat something that's weird and new and low in glueten and milk or whatever? Sorry, I'm just skeptical, but anyways, yes, I'd believe most milder or even moderately autistic children could be babysat.