(Our) Sarah met Sarah Benatsou, an educator specializing in autistic children who was kind enough to testify about her committed profession!
Why did you choose to work in this field?
I chose the profession of specialized educator by vocation, to help people in difficulty but above all to give of my person on a daily basis in my profession. What really attracted me to this job was mobility. Indeed, the diversity of establishments and publics concerned by the social or medico-social sector offers a possibility of change, discovery, renewal, permanent education.
The superpower you need in your job?
I don't know if it's a super power but in any case you have to know how to listen so you may need super ears 🙂
According to you, what are the prerequisites or important qualities? What served you (old experiences, extra-professional experiences, others…) when you never would have imagined it?
It seems essential to me to be able to question ourselves but also to adjust our practice according to the person we have in front of us. Avoid: generalization.
Otherwise, when I started my studies, I didn't think that my previous experience as a facilitator would help me so much, especially in establishing the relationship with the people we support, children or not, especially in the context of support. autistic children. Before teaching them to count, we teach them to play, so thank you BAFA!
Your best memory ?
At my first internship site, I followed a little boy for a school year. In September he did not seem to notice my presence because he was often locked up in his world; in June during my leaving drink he gave me a gift and said to me: “Sarah is going to leave, Sarah will be missed by N.” Emotion sequence!
How are organized (in summary) your work, your days?
The children are present from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., we try to operate a bit like the “ordinary” school, because the goal is to reduce this differentiation. Between learning workshops, games, sports, artistic activities, outings and moments of daily life, the days and weeks follow one another but are never alike, that's what is interesting. When you work with people, you have to know that nothing happens as you expect, sometimes negatively but also often positively.
My role is to provide support that promotes the development of children. We also intervene with parents in order to maintain and/or rebuild family ties.
As an educator we are not a substitute for parents, please note 😉
Any advice for those who would like to go down this path?
You have to WANT it, that's the most important thing! But also a lot of patience and perseverance.
Des liens où te retrouver ou à partager ?
On devrait en faire un film - a short report on Stéphane Bénamou, founder of the association Le Silence des Justes which helps autistic children, by Olivier Nakache and Eric Tolédano.
For further
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