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I'm going to go against the grain and not mention patience or kindness. These are great quality traits, but I've seen some therapists (behavioral, speech, and physical) who have been too kind and nice that they made only little or even no progress even after several years. "Let the child do what he wants." "He's fine. He doesn't need me."
You need someone who has experience dealing with a number of other children about the same age. Just because someone is great with high schoolers does not mean they will be effective with toddlers. There are different schools of theory to dealing with autism. If the therapist only familiar with one that the school or parents don't agree with, you can basically consider it over.
You need someone can communicate with parents. What's the point if you have all these programs set up in a school, and they aren't implemented at home? School is about 6-7 hours a day. If a similar program is not set up for the remaining 17-18 hours of the day, it's a total waste of time and money. It could even confuse the child.
Finally, you need someone with professionalism. I've seen people with PhDs, multiple degrees, and impressive resumes all get rejected by a school because they didn't come on time, they had unacceptable manners, and they didn't do their job completely.
patience, and a secure sense of self. If you are accustomed to people responding to you, you won't get that from an autistic child. They are very self-contained and not demonstrative. They often don't want to be touched by anyone. So if you need reinforcement in the way of interaction between you and your client, you won't get it. If you can understand that this is part of who they are, and not become discouraged by an apparent lack of response, that will be a plus for you.
Be in this world, not of it. Very calm, very sure of yourself, able to see a point of view that very few can see. Willing to go through the training to know what that point of view might be. It can be very rewarding but frustrating. The other people that don't understand will drive you nuts.
kindness, clearness, patience, percervierence, and intelegence.
I agree with the last post. We believe our 8 yr. old son has Asperger's. His symptoms are very hard to detect, but are stronger in different settings. I think his Speech and OT teachers can be too easy on him. Just as we learn about what makes our family and friends "tick" a teacher needs to be like a detective to solve this mystery and be willing and open to try lots of things. Don't be afraid to challenge them. You'll be surprised and rewarded.
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