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How would you deal with a coworker like this one?

Okay so about 1 month a girl started at my site. She is my aide and she basically follows me around and repeats everything that I do. For example if I am working with a group of kids on handwriting and she will sit down with us instead of watching the other kids. If a child starts crying and I say come here Chris, she will repeat what I said. In situations like this i tried the following: I said Oh Chris come here whats wrong, she said "Come here Chris it's okay" and so I was going to let her handle the situation but when i focused my attention on the other kids and instead of seeing what was wrong with the child she turned to do what I was doing!!!! So I had to go back and deal with the situation. I have to deal with this constantly her following me around, and repeating what I'm saying. I really dont know what to do. By the way, we work at an after school program site and I am the Program Leader at the site. She is my aide... HELP BEFORE SHE DRIVES ME CRAZY! (i got some great suggestions, looking for more)

Public Comments

1. She seems pretty immature to me. May be this kind of work isn't going to work for her. I would reassign her to something else or let her go.
2. Tell her that she's not there to mimic your actions, but instead to observe you and act accordingly. She probably needs some direction ie. you have to give her something to do, otherwise she will just follow you around in hopes of sharing a task.
3. Sit her down and tell her she has been there long enough and you are going to assign her duties to do on her own. Give her a certain group to lead, or a certain child or two to help. You are the leader and you need to lead and not allow her to drive you crazy. As soon as she starts her "following" routine, stop and get her on track again. Let her know she will need to start being more independent just in case she has to take your place in an emergency. I'm sure she will do as you tell her to. She probably looks up to you for guidance and she doesn't want to screw-up. Compliment her when she does things correctly, or as you would like them done. She might be immature, and your guidance will give her confidence.
4. No kidding. Does she not know what to do? I think you should give her instructions in a polite and professional manner.
5. Tell her that she is doing a fine job but now it is time for her to take the initiative and start doing a few things on her own not not shadowing you. When something comes up, just tell her to handle this problem and you will be handling the other problem. Tell her that you will be keeping a eye on her in case you see that she needs help.
6. You need to make her do something productive instead of following you around. Have a game plan set and talk to her about it before the kids come in (ask her to come early). Then assign her specific things to do that day, or specific kids you want her to work with. Do something like split the kids into 2 groups, you take group A and she takes group B. You do handwriting skills with group A for 1 hour and She does Math skills. Then when the hour is over you switch groups. You then do handwriting skills with group B and she does Math skills with group A. She can't copy you and you can both then concentrate on what you're individually doing. She's your aide - you need to tell her what you want her to do.
7. It sounds like she doesn't understand what she's supposed to be doing and you haven't explained it to her. When you are focused on one group and need her to watch the others, tell her to do that. Say, "I'll take care of Chris, make sure the other kids are OK." Communication is key!
8. Recruit her as your aid and take advantage of the fact that she so obviously wants to help you. Can you assign her some tasks? Sounds like she just needs something to do, like a puppy following you around. Don't get angry, take advantage of the help and give her work to do. "Oh Pamela, here, let's not duplicate efforts. Would you pass this out while I go get the crayons?" <--this is very effective when she starts doing the same thing you are. As soon as she starts, you let her wrap it up and move on to soemthing else. Make sure you say "let's not duplicate efforts" and get that girl on to another task.
9. I think you need to have an honest talk with her and explain to her that it would be more useful if she focused her attention on other kids than the one you are dealing with at the moment. Explain how it is a waste if both of you do the exact same thing with the same child at the same time and how it would be more effective if you could spread the attention on more children by not following each other around. Maybe explain her job duties better to her, to make sure she understands her role there correctly. You can have a talk like this without sounding rude. Just try to not show your irritation and instead make this sound like kind advice. Good luck.
10. I think she is just unclear as to what her job actually is. She might think an aide is supposed to follow you around and repeat everything you say. Either you pull her aside or talk to her before your shift (or have your boss or whoever her boss is do it) and tell her what is expected of her. Tell her she is doing a good job so far, but she needs to be doing this or this too. I know I was very nervous at my first job years ago. Looking back, I was clueless and did a bad job. I didn't have anyone to tell me otherwise or to give me pointers. I was given 2.5 hours a week until I finally quit!
11. HAVE YOU GIVEN HER A WRITTEN DESCRIPTION OF EXACTLY WHAT HER JOB DUTIES ARE? Have you given her written INSTRUCTIONS on HOW to do those duties? If you have NOT done both of those Management duties, this will always be a problem for both of you. SHE NEEDS to know what is expected of her so she CAN do her job the right way. YOU NEED to make SURE she knows. There is no other way to evaluate how well or how bad she is doing and be able to correct any problems fairly. So, write everything out, call her in early one day, go over it with her, MAKE SURE SHE UNDERSTANDS everything, then have her sign two copies - you keep one set, she gets one set. Problem solved.
12. Ask her to stay after work and have a talk with her. Have an idea of what you do want her to do, what you expect of her, before the meeting. Then ask her if she has any questions or things she wants to talk about now that she's been there a few weeks. If she doesn't, tell her that her job isn't to imitate you but to assist you by quieting kids who are disrupting the rest of the class, taking over the leadership role if you have taken a group off to do something else, etc. Explain to her what she should be doing and that her dogging you around isn't useful at all and isn't assisting you. Ask her if she can do what you expect of her (after you've explained what you expect). And if you expect her to do something and she doesn't do it, then at that time (not later) explain that she needs to go and [do whatever the other thing is right now]. If she doesn't start catching on after you give her a few tries, talk to whoever is responsible for hiring her or keeping her there--if she has a mental problem she might not be able to conceive that she needs to have self initiative of her own, that you cannot give her specific step-by-step instructions and half the job is seeing a need and filling it. She may not know what her job actually is, how much initiative she can use without getting into trouble, etc.