Sunyi

My Requirements

Both of my children are autistic, and my youngest is partially or mostly nonspeaking with some developmental delay (he acts more like a 3yo than a 10yo.)

I'm a separated parent and I have my kids part of the week with me. My daughter is self sufficient and easy going, but my son has a combination of traits that make him challenging. He's high energy and easily bored, but also easily overwhelmed and has very poor communication skills. We use a tablet at home and he has some words but it's still not ideal, and is the cause of many if our problems I suspect.

At home he is mostly calm but can be seized by aggressive moods where he throws or breaks items which is very stressful, and means I need to watch him constantly when he's around. He also tends to wake for hours in the night which then makes looking after him or taking him out difficult, because I'm so tired in the day. Also while he loves to go out, he struggles with crowds and queues and social rules, and I struggle in turn to manage his behaviour at times.

I'm happy to take him out and accompany him places but as he gets bigger and older I can't always manage him easily when he's in meltdown, and bei g autistic/adhd myself I'm not great at developing routines or being organised, and end up just feeling so overwhelmed most of the time. When I'm on deadline for work, and/or when he's in an aggressive and recalcitrant phase, my stress rockets.

I currently live with my partner who is not the kids' father, and he helps when he can but he has other responsibilities too (plus he default ends up looking after my daughter since I'm always busy with my son).

Ideally i would like someone around on Sundays and maybe Monday afternoons during term time, expanding to Sundays Mondays and Tuesdays in the daytime during summer break. As mentioned above I don't mind accompanying him on activities but someone who could come with us (or occasionally go instead of me), and/or help me manage routines and engage him would be wonderful. I can drive so it's fine if you can't, although it is a litte easier if you are able to. I think experience of nonverbal autism would be pretty crucial in this case.

I'm flexible on hours and my need will increase during summer, so my section below is not at all fixed in stone, although those are the days I generally need. Any amount of help on those days would be great.