Knapp Center for Childhood Development

You’re going to get more than bargained for lol. Compared to other ABA companies, this place is reaching to be something they are not. They want to portray themselves as a school, but for obvious reasons, it will always be a “clinic”. 

Do you enjoy taking work home with you? No? Okay, then don’t work here. It’s funny because you’re expected to finish all of these things within a day, yet you’re not given ample time to finish these things. Not only that, but I’m not going to spend all day writing out papers while I have a client with me. I’m going to engage with my client over writing notes. Your client will need materials that you’re expected to make or wait 4 months for your supervisor to make for you. But you also won’t have any time to make the materials, but you’ll still get yelled at for not having them. 

Oh yeah, the notes are the only way you get paid so make sure you finish them, even though you won’t have time. Plenty of people are often weeks late by the time they can turn in their billing, which means docked pay. 

Now let’s talk about the lack of communication and superficial leadership from supervisors. You’ll have “supervisors” whom, many have never worked as RBT’s, and have absolutely no management skills or leadership skills, yet they’re your “supervisors”. 

I’m sorry but, maybe these people who are in charge of large groups of people should have some sort of management training? It’s so terribly managed. I never know what I’m supposed to be doing even after I ask multiple people multiple times. Your supervisors also don’t give you specific tasks or instructions when plans change or if something comes up, so if you’re not doing exactly what they want, they will give you a hard time, even though no one specifically told you what to do and they just expect you to read their minds. If you want your staff to be productive without needing you to clean up their mistakes,  give them specific instruction. 
My anxiety has never been so bad since working here. I constantly dread the never ending to do list, I never feel “settled” or comfortable. I’m just on edge the entire 8 hours because I never know what will happen next. I accidentally lost 20lbs since working here now that I don’t have time or the appetite to eat, and don’t have time to sleep anymore. I’ve only felt nothing but stress for the last how many months and I feel this is no way to live. I can now see why it’s so hard for this place to retain employees. 

Of course this job is not predictable, but I’d at least like to have some kind of heads up on what I’m doing or who I’m working with the night before. Like a normal job would. You know, so I can prepare my very best? Especially since we don’t have time to prepare anything for the kids anymore and their treatment quality is just going down the garbage because no one has time to put in the effort anymore, not that anyone did in the first place.

They spent millions on a brand new building that is completely falling apart. Many of the bathrooms on most of the floors don’t work and continue to keep breaking, yet there’s maintenance and cleaning workers all day now but I’ve yet to see anyone actually fix anything. Doors breaking, tables, etc. the building was also set up half heartedly and many of the rooms are not set up appropriately for the clients who are in them. 

Also, the entire company is run by literally one person. It’s a big place and yeah sure we have “supervisors” but most of them are not actually in charge of anything other than clients’ treatment plans, so they must await instruction from Dr. Knapp. Who, in the many months I’ve been working, have only met and seen with my own eyes 1 time. From what I’ve heard, she has no clue what’s going on within her company and would probably benefit from giving her supervisors real management training and allowing for other people to make decisions within the company within their limits because we’re all really struggling and the supervisors are too. It would be really nice if they could have some authority over making decisions that would benefit all of us… especially since THEY are working with us and we’re together everyday but maybe only see Dr. Knapp like once every 6 months? 

This place also says they care about your professional development but I’ve been here for months and have yet to receive my RBT. No one cares or follows up with you on that. You definitely will not have it in your first 90 days or your first 150 days for that matter. 

Employees are rude especially when you first start. It took MONTHS before my coworkers actually started being genuinely friendly to me. They’re extremely fake at first because they really do not think you will last. Also many people get trained in one department but will work in another and you’ll never see them again. But also, many people will show up for training and not even make it through the first week… so I get it. But it really does stink when you’re just trying to make friends when you start out but everyone is very clichey and judgemental. The trainers talk very badly about many of their trainees. It really alarms me, it’s extremely unprofessional. And pretty much all your other coworkers will do is talk about other coworkers. Even ones they claim are their “friends”. I cannot trust a soul here. 

But hey! If you are still in the market for a job that is pretty fun and you love kids. Go for it. They will hire you as long as you breathe. 

The homes I was placed in were not screened ahead of time. Learning areas were not established, and in 1 house, it was not an option to have a learning area, so I was doing session right in the middle of their main living room where the entire family congregated and passed through, making programs and control of the session impossible and hindering the PT's progress. I did not get any breaks, as I was alone with the child the entire duration of session and would have to go find a parent or someone to keep an eye on the child while I used the bathroom. My "lunch break" was the 30 minutes that it took me to drive from one house to the next, so I didn't get a lunch, or a break. Ever. I had to learn to eat in my vehicle while driving or just not eat at all. I couldn't eat with my clients because it would've caused behavior issues and it would have been very awkward to eat in front of them when they weren't eating. So, lunch was always something cold, fast, finger food stuff, nothing warm or eaten with a fork. Very sad. I was assigned a brand new BCBA who made a lot of changes in programs with 1 of my clients and un-did all the progress I had made, and subsequently caused my client to develop an aversion to ME after I worked for months to earn the client's trust. I rarely had the right materials, often supplying myself with stuff I needed because I cared very deeply for my kiddos and couldn't wait for the BCBA to get materials to me after weeks and months of asking. If you had to go to the Center when your client canceled, if you weren't assigned "indirects" to work on immediately, any time that you spent sitting and waiting to be told what to do, wasn't "billable" time so you'd sit there for free, on your time, waiting for someone to assign you a project. I was not given a laptop; I had to use my own and carry it with me daily. After about 6 months, they finally got around to ordering laptops for people. I was given a Kindle to use for supervision but it wasn't an option --the volume was so quiet you couldn't hear the BCBA talking, and for a lot of my programs, the Kindle was used as a reinforcer so I couldn't use it for remote supervision AND give it to the client for program reinforcement. No compensation for travel. I had to accompany one of my clients 2 times a week to an additional therapy appointment in a nearby state. This was beyond my "expected" work location of "in-home therapy" and I was driving on my own dime 2x/week to another office in PA during my session times. 

During the height of the pandemic in 2020, one of my clients' family members tested positive for Covid and I was quarantined for a while and then sent back into the home even after said person tested positive again following quarantine. This was when employees were actually eligible to receive 2 weeks of pay to stay home under the Federal Corona Care Act, but that information was never relayed to the staff. How ironic. I didn't know I was eligible for that until a couple months after this incident when an email was finally sent out to the staff. I was forced back in to the home with a positive case and told to "be careful." even though I was not given any type of disinfectant or sanitizing products. I had to find it myself (resources were very scarce at this time, and expensive) and pay for it with my own money, and I was having to buy it weekly due to the situations in the homes I was in. I wanted so badly to love this job, but I couldn't make it work. I was so unhappy. I loved my clients and their families - that's for sure.
You don't get paid for holidays until you've been there 1 full year,  likely because most staff don't stick around that long. They also consider Black Friday, Christmas Eve, and NYE, "holidays" and you are OFF, unpaid, in addition to Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Years Day.... imagine having 6 unpaid days off right around Christmas time when money is most needed, and not having the option of working it and getting paid. 3 of those holidays aren't even holidays. My paychecks were shorted SO much during the weeks between Thanksgiving and the New Year especially because a lot of families cancel for family events during that time, too.  You never have the right materials for the programs you're required to implement, so a lot of times you are purchasing them with your own money.
Lastly, they don't drug test. I found that very bizarre. They background check, but they don't drug test so the staff is just working 1-on-1 with children, from little babies to older teens and not asked to pass a drug test, ever. Perhaps this makes it easier to get new people hired quickly.  

Let’s start off with the positives. The kids are absolutely amazing and make the job worth every minute. Watching the child grow and learn was by far the most amazing part of the job. You will make a lot of friends and everyone will tell you good morning when you walk in the door. It’s refreshing to say the least. Most of the BCBAs and BCaBAs were awesome and extremely helpful. 
Now the negatives.
While working here I constantly felt afraid that I was going to get fired, not because of something that I was personally doing wrong but it is a disposable culture. I constantly felt discouraged due to micromanaging and lack of support from others. The BCBAs are so stressed with the workload they are given, they are often unable to assist completely. If someone does offer support and they are upper management, it is usually derogatory. Once coming back from
COVID we stopped accruing PTO and we were not given our yearly reviews. If you are thinking about getting your masters or you are done with your masters and you want supervision hours, they will not provide them unless you are in the internship. If you don’t make it into the internship you still have to continue working there and not getting a single step closer to getting your hours. You have to apply for the internship in March and it is only within company unless it is an exception. You must also have worked there a year (also exception depending on how needed you are). You are also unable to get a degree from YSU while you work there because it conflicts with your noncompete that you sign. The noncompete states that you are unable to work in any program that deals with behavioral health unless it is over 100 miles away from the center or it’s been over a year. That is fine but if you want to get your supervision hours in, ya better buy a new car because you are about to drive a long ways or you are going to wait a year.
You will be required to clean the walls, stairs and whatever is necessary depending on the task. You may even be on your hands and knees cleaning while parents walk past you and comment on how dirty the stairs are because the cleaning crew only cleans twice a week and it consists of vacuuming and doing the bathroom.
If someone calls off you may potentially be put in a dyad, which consists of two children together. That sounds fine but they are both required to sit or stay at the table as you bounce between learning for two different children. Many of these children struggled to sit in a chair and often run away from the table. While you are trying to get the one child at the table, the other child runs away. You pretty much spend a majority of the day just trying to make sure they are safe and aren’t going to get hurt. If you request that two children should not be put together due to their activity level or the lack of safety, they will still most likely be together still. Unless the child is extremely aggressive or has extreme behavioral, count on those dyads. 
They may also try to intimidate you when it comes to different thoughts or beliefs or when it comes to the “prestige” of this company.
Overall, I was trained really well. Once leaving here and getting another job states away, I was told how well trained I was and how they had others who formerly worked here and were amazing. Training is very well done and you will learn so much. You will also get good pay. You will not be able to move up within the company unless you kiss butt, change your personality or are completely fearless. You will be talked down to at least once if not more than that. You will struggle to find another job afterwards unless you move or you go
Into a different field. You might not ever get your yearly review or raise but they will offer you free coffee and a Christmas party. 

The theory of orientation they sold us like it was going to be a dream to work at this place. They made you feel like you're going to be part of something huge and it was going to be great. You were going to have so much support and training and guidance until you were comfortable. The training process is a little tedious as you have to do everything on paper. I mean everything keeping track of your hours and billing, collecting data to graph and graphing and the notes for each patient describing what you did every day. They have these lousy old beat-up computers that are available to staff. It takes 20 minutes to load into a computer if you've never been on it and it's really hard to work on them if you ever need to.

Once training was over if you're lucky enough you'll get a place with the kid and if not then you're going to be hopping around a lot covering lunches and doing all sorts of stuff until you actually get a kid. When it comes to supervisors they're super nice here that are really good to talk to you others just make you feel like you're stupid. Did you call for support because the kid has a behavior and they walk in and the behavior is almost over or immediately stops for them, you are questioned whether or not you were doing what you were supposed to and if you truly need it the support. Some days I felt like I just have to figure it out along the way and if you get a kid that belong to someone before you or they work that that get before you and you're constantly causing past with this person whose kid you know have they will make sure to tell you everything you're doing wrong and tell you how you should be doing it better by doing it exactly the way they did. Honestly working at this place has not been a good experience and even though you fall in love with some of the kids because they are great that attachment is not stronger than the way management makes you feel everyday. Leaving is the best part

First, the families and a select few coworkers make it a more enjoyable workplace which is why I give it a two star rating. You cannot have any "private" conversation with coworkers as you will be watched on cameras, even when clients aren't there. Management select "lead" RBTs to boss around other RBTs and give out extra work they dont want to do (like cleaning the center because they don't want to hire a company to come in and thoroughly clean more than two days a week....not even during a pandemic 🤢) yet most leads haven't been there for more than a year or two (which is a veteran RBT there, as the overturn of employees is extremely high). If you ask a "lead" RBT a question about work...you may get the answer "I dont know, I just work here" and end up guessing because you will rarely get a concrete answer on just about anything. Dr.Knapp does not hire people who are a good fit for the job, and mostly speed hires to get bodies in the chair....which is a nightmare for the kids who are held back due to incompetent staff. Healthcare benefits are below average and the rates are extremely high. Yearly raises were not given out, paid sick/vacation or holiday is just about nonexistent unless you've been there for years......but noone really makes it that far unless they become bestfriends with management. You are not rewarded on hard work, only by sucking up to the right people. 

I really enjoyed working with the children and their families. I did 
learn a lot from their training and got a decent hourly rate starting out. Cons: Upper management is not friendly and you will be lucky after the interview process if they even care to acknowledge your presence when you walk by. Any suggestions you make are not taken seriously and when you ask a question, you may get a dirty look and a patronizing response after asking about something. Though I do miss working with some of the families, I don't miss the upper management--they don't understand that the RBTs (the position I was in) is truly the backbone of the company. And once your back breaks, you can't stand on your own two feet--The staff turnover was fairly steady. They should show way more appreciation for the RBTs than they do (they may put on a good show and pretend like they do by offering team building events or a fancy Christmas party, but when it comes to every day common curtiousy, the truth bleeds through). If you can put aside upper management and some snarky comments from time to time and focus on the children, you will at the very least get a good learning experience out of it...but get the experience you need (if needed) so you can move on to a better opportunity, a job with management that will actually value you and the work that you do.

This was the most stressful place of employment. The only things I learned was to be quiet and not speak unless I was running programs. I would go home and cry from the chaos and craziness I experienced there. The clients have severe behavioral problems and the staff and head honchos are fake. The employees are not helpful or friendly. Very cliche and lots of gossip. Most of the time you have 2 clients to watch. Higher ups lie and make you feel crazy for what they put you through.  Gaslighting at its finest. Good luck getting paid. You don’t get enough time to fill out billing and it’s not hard to fall behind for weeks at a time. No materials for teaching and no help if you do try to do them yourself. Office supplies limited too. I feel sorry for the kids. The parents haven’t a clue how miserable their child is all day only to be told that everything is fine. Lies! Some employees there do their best with the kids but are worked and stressed to the breaking point. Turn over is extremely high like a revolving door. Great people leave and more get hired and come in then they leave. I had enough and felt it was best to take my skills and talents elsewhere. In conclusion: The owner Knapp is a quack. 

I worked at the Knapp Center for 2 years and had to resign due to my husband being transferred out of state for his job. I loved working at the Knapp Center and hope if I ever move back, they will have a position for me. The Center strived for the best patient care and creating a healthy work culture for employees. Their Moto was "no complaints only requests" and "if there is a problem come forward with solutions."  Basically they strived to rid the environment of whiners and complainers, teaching professionalism of speaking in terms of requests. They also strived to empower employees to find solutions to problems that arise. Dr. Knapp and programs coordinators spent a lot of time teaching employees how to be professional (leave your gossip and complaining at home) and how to focus on what is important - patient care, helping that child learn to talk, or point, or play. I loved all the Percs that came with the job and I think anyone who wants to work in a fast paced, professional place that is always striving for improvement in patient care and employee satisfaction, then this place is for you.

This place is so bad. Everything about it is wrong. A lot of time is spent working with 2 kids because of people quitting or calling off, and we are still expected to run programs with them… it’s hard to even keep them safe sometimes! We’re expected to make materials for programs but we have zero time to do this, but then get in trouble for not having them done. It’s hard to even complete daily graphing and other assigned duties after the kids leave, let alone cutting and laminating hundreds of cards and little pieces. The BCBAs are worked to death, and it makes me feel guilty to even ask for help because I see how thin they are stretched. They also have no authority to make any decisions or discipline those they are supervising, so the same issues continue repeatedly and indefinitely. These problems will only continue to get worse in this new building, but that is if they can find enough people to even fully staff it. If you can walk and talk, you will be hired, but I would stay away. 

The first little while the job is nice and it feels meaningful but once you get the hang of everything it turns terrible. Those who are good at their jobs are made to babysit the others who cannot do their jobs effectively.  It eventually turns sour at some point resulting in people leaving or moved somewhere else. The management never showed any real resolve to any issues presented. They constantly hire huge classes of new employees and many don’t make it very far before they quit or just stop showing up. This has happened many times before and most likely will continue to do so. They have a bad reputation upon other facilities and I can see why. Most people there are just there to collect a paycheck nothing more. Avoid this at all costs or you will waste your time and end up being stressed out all the time as well as being sick constantly. There was never a month where I wasn’t sick as well as the kids. Everyone is sick there all the time and call offs happen frequently. But if you take too many then you will be contacted by management about your attendance. Working there is a constant cat and mouse game and is to be avoided.

Working at KNAPP CENTER FOR CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT: Company Overview and Reviews

KNAPP CENTER FOR CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT

KNAPP CENTER FOR CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT Ratings

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected