Sue Watson, from the About.com Special Education page has created a list of 10 questions to ask yourself before you decide to pursue a career as a special educator. Looking over the list, I think it applies equally to paraeducators. Here is one of the question she asks:
3. Do you have endless patience?
I spent many months working with a child with Cerebral Palsy with the main goal being achieving a yes/no response. After months of working on this, it was achieved and she would raise her hand for yes and shake her head for no. These kinds of things are often just taken for granted, this was a very big learning leap for this child and made the world of difference. It took endless patience.