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By dramacentral

Desiree,

Without knowing more about you and your teaching goals, it's hard to say how you will feel about your new position. I can just tell you what my own experience was.

When I took my job teaching autistic
children, I was very young. Just out of college. I had worked with many children before, but never an autistic child. I had read about autism, but found the day to day reality with the children to be very eye-opening. In the beginning I relied on my assistants and interns, and only after following the system they already had did I feel comfortable taking a leadership role and changing

it. Some things were counterintuitive to me - I felt like I was learning to work with children all over again.

I found the job to be very rewarding and got lots of great experience, but it was tiring. Sometimes the kids would appear to make progress and then suddenly "lose" the skills we'd taught them. It frustrated me very much when I couldn't get them to comply or when they engaged in behavior that was bizarre or hurtful to themselves or others. I developed a very close attachment to them, but it felt quite alien at first. You don't always get the typical feedback from them - you can't always tell by looking at them whether they are listening to you as you speak, or even if they know you are present. Some kids are very affectionate, but others may not show any signs that they like you or even recognize you from day to day. Some of my kids took a whole year just to learn to say my name - but when they did, it felt amazing. That is one of my proudest moments as a teacher.

If you are still deciding which job to take, I'd try to investigate a few things:
- what are the educational programs and interventions used with the autistic children? do they follow a behavioral approach, how rigid is it, would you feel comfortable with it? do they use food rewards, and if so, are you OK with that? (some people aren't)
- When the kids don't comply or act out, what system is in place? Will they train you in it? How upsetting would it be for you to actually implement it? I learned how to physically restrain students and never needed that training, but when it did actually come time to do it, I found that the school was over-using the technique, and furthermore, that the technique was designed for smaller children rather than the 100-pound boy I was dealing with. This led to my decision to leave the program.
- who will your assistants be? are they paraprofessionals, interns, etc? what education and training do they have? My assistants were a mixture of college students and long-time paraprofessionals. They were mostly great and willing to cooperate with me, and loved the children. The ones who didn't, didn't make it in my classroom. Coworkers can make the difference between burnout and loving your job - I have been there.
- What is your definition of success in teaching? Would it be OK with you to work for a year with a child who makes little observable progress or who appears to lose skills s/he's learned? This was hard for me, especially in the beginning. My classes always contained a mix - some students made huge gains, others very few. The ones who really soared kept my spirit up to deal with the ones who struggled.

Good luck with whatever you decide!