Diagnosis & need
An au pair for a family with a child with cerebral palsy
Support for families with a child with cerebral palsy
When a child lives with cerebral palsy, depending on how it presents, they may need more time, support or assistance in everyday family life.
Some children with cerebral palsy walk independently and only need help in particular situations. Others use walking aids or a wheelchair and need more support across several areas of everyday life.
On top of this there can be therapy appointments, medical visits, nursery (Kita) or school, leisure activities and the needs of siblings.
An au pair for a child with cerebral palsy can support families in daily life and create real relief.
At Besondere Sterne we place au pairs specifically with families with children with and without a disability or additional needs – including families with children with cerebral palsy.
What is cerebral palsy?
Cerebral palsy, sometimes also called infantile cerebral palsy or CP, describes a group of movement and posture conditions caused by an early injury to, or disturbance in the development of, the brain.
How cerebral palsy affects a child can vary a great deal.
For some children it mainly affects individual movements. Other children have more significant motor limitations and use aids such as orthoses, walking aids or a wheelchair.
Other particular traits can also be present alongside it.
That is why a diagnosis of cerebral palsy alone does not tell you how much support a child needs in everyday life.
For us, what matters is:
What can your child do independently – and where do they need support?
How can an au pair support a family affected by cerebral palsy?
An au pair can take on many everyday tasks and accompany a child wherever no medical care or professional nursing care is required.
Depending on age, independence and support needs, an au pair might, for example:
- play, read, do craft activities or spend time outdoors together,
- accompany the walk to and from nursery (Kita) or school,
- accompany the child to leisure activities or therapy appointments,
- support with everyday routines,
- help prepare clothes, a school bag or personal belongings,
- carry through familiar routines and structures,
- give the child enough time for independent tasks,
- shape shared free time and afternoons,
- look after siblings,
- prepare simple meals for the children,
- take on light tasks around the children,
- take on babysitting within the agreed working hours.
Which tasks actually suit an au pair always depends on the individual child's support needs.
Making independence possible
A physical limitation does not automatically mean that a child needs as much help as possible.
Perhaps they can put their coat on themselves – but need longer to do it.
Perhaps they can eat independently, once everything is prepared appropriately.
Perhaps they move around perfectly safely at home, but need support outside their familiar surroundings.
An au pair can create exactly this time in everyday life.
They can support without immediately taking over.
Because sometimes good support means:
not being faster for a child, but giving them the time to manage something themselves.
When a wheelchair, walking aid or orthoses are part of everyday life
For some children with cerebral palsy, aids are naturally a part of everyday life.
These can, for example, be a wheelchair, a rollator, a gait trainer or orthoses.
An au pair does not need to already have experience with these aids.
What matters far more is discussing openly, before the placement, what the child can do independently and what support is actually needed.
Can the child use their wheelchair independently?
Do they only need to be pushed on longer stretches?
Does the child need support getting in or out?
Are physical transfers necessary?
For physically demanding or nursing tasks in particular, it must be clarified beforehand whether these are even part of an au pair's role at all.
Therapies are part of everyday life – the au pair does not replace them
Physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy or other support services can regularly be part of the weekly schedule for children with cerebral palsy.
An au pair can accompany a child to appointments, or take some other task off parents' hands while they attend a therapy appointment.
However, they do not replace a therapist and do not carry out independent therapeutic measures.
If parents or professionals recommend particular everyday routines, the au pair can take these into account in normal family life.
Professional therapy, however, remains the task of the relevant professionals.
When communication needs more time
Cerebral palsy primarily affects movement and posture. For some children, however, speaking can also be more difficult.
This does not automatically mean that a child does not understand language or has nothing to say.
Some children use spoken language, others signs, pictures, symbols or electronic communication aids.
It is therefore important for an au pair to learn:
How does this child communicate?
They do not need to already master a form of communication professionally. But they should be willing to listen attentively, observe, and get to know the child's individual way of communicating.
Free time is allowed to simply be free time
Children with cerebral palsy do not only have therapy schedules.
They want to play.
Meet friends.
Go to the playground.
Listen to music.
Draw.
Swim.
Bake.
Watch a film.
Be outdoors.
Or sometimes simply spend a cosy afternoon at home.
An au pair can be an extra young person in the child's life, someone with whom these ordinary everyday experiences take place.
Not every shared activity has to be developmental.
A child with cerebral palsy is allowed to be, above all, one thing: a child.
When further particular needs are also present
For some children, another disability or condition exists alongside the cerebral palsy.
These can include, for example, developmental delay, epilepsy, a visual or hearing impairment, or a learning disability (a term used in Germany for intellectual disability).
When several conditions are present at once, this can also be described as multiple disabilities.
In these cases, we look particularly closely at what support the child actually needs.
Because with cerebral palsy too, this holds true:
It is not the number of diagnoses that decides whether an au pair can help – it is the specific tasks in everyday life.
An au pair is not a carer
Especially where cerebral palsy is more pronounced, a clear boundary matters.
An au pair is not a trained carer, not a medical professional, and not a therapist.
They do not carry out professional nursing care, medical treatment, or tasks that require a corresponding professional qualification.
If a child needs, for example, extensive physical support, medical care or demanding transfers, it must be clarified who takes on these tasks.
An au pair can still support in many other areas of family life alongside this.
Support for siblings and parents
When a child regularly attends therapy, medical appointments or other support services, this affects the daily schedule of the whole family.
This is exactly when an au pair can also be valuable support for siblings.
While one parent drives a child to physiotherapy, the au pair can pick a sibling up from nursery (Kita).
They can take them to sport, go to the playground with them, or shape the afternoon at home.
This creates relief exactly where the family needs it.
Which au pair suits a child with cerebral palsy?
That depends on the individual child.
For some families, an active au pair is ideal, one who likes being out and about and accompanying leisure activities.
Others need a particularly patient person, because many everyday tasks take more time.
Depending on the support needs, experience with children with a physical disability or multiple disabilities can be helpful.
Just as important, though, are openness, reliability, and a willingness to get to know the child's abilities and respect their independence.
Finding an au pair for a child with cerebral palsy
At Besondere Sterne, we support families with children with cerebral palsy in finding a suitable au pair.
We look together at how independent your child is in everyday life, which aids they use, where support is necessary, and which tasks you would like an au pair to take on.
You can then get to know suitable au pairs and decide for yourself which person is right for your child and your family.
Getting to know each other
Looking for an au pair for a child with cerebral palsy or infantile cerebral palsy (CP)?
Then get to know our au pairs and find support that fits your everyday family life.
Besondere Sterne is an au pair agency — not a special-education service and not an advice centre. For legal and specialist questions there is the EUTB: teilhabeberatung.de. Go to whichever advice centre you feel comfortable with.