Reserved for VIP Guests: Transforming a Hotel into a Behavior Healthcare Center

Written by: Chelsea Spears

Photography by: Rob Wetzler / Wetzler Studios

Walking into the former Red Roof Inn in Poland, Ohio, guests aren’t rolling suitcases. Instead, they’re usually gripping the hand of their mom or dad with a backpack in tow – eagerly awaiting the day ahead.

That’s because guests at this former hotel are children, and they’re learning to navigate life with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

They aren’t checking into hotel rooms, but rather, the Knapp Center for Childhood Development – a behavior health center that provides Applied Behavior Analysis, Speech Therapy and Diagnostics for children with autism.

Put simply, it’s a space where kids come daily to learn the skills they need to be successful in life (while also having fun.) And as it turns out – a once-operational hotel is exactly the kind of environment the Knapp Center needed to foster that kind of support.

Hotel Transformation

Transforming a 51,000-square-foot hotel into a behavior healthcare clinic was quite literally an epiphany for founder Julie Knapp, Ph.D., BCBA-D, COBA.

“I was constantly watching the market for a place to purchase that would meet our unique needs. Then one day I woke up and said, ‘I need to buy a hotel!’” Dr. Knapp recalled. “It just came to me in my dreams.”

At the time, the Knapp Center, which she opened in 2010, was operating out of an office setting in Boardman, but they had outgrown the space. Conference rooms, even closets were functioning as therapy spaces.

Hundreds of children were on a waitlist to get in.

“I lost sleep at night because kids weren’t getting services,” Dr. Knapp said. “It’s really hard to look at the mom of a toddler who’s not talking yet and tell her, ‘Your child has autism,’ which is heart wrenching, but then afterwards I also had to tell her there’s a six-month waitlist for treatment.”

With early intervention being key to treating autism, Dr. Knapp needed a bigger space as soon as possible – and one with bathrooms. Lots of them.

Working with 100 kids a week, some as young as 13 months old, the Knapp Center had to toilet train many children while still giving treatment. For their new space, a hotel – with an abundance of restrooms – made sense.

So Dr. Knapp reached out to Joshua Fye, Senior Vice President, Pennsylvania Commercial Banking Team Leader at Farmers National Bank.

“The Knapp Center didn’t have the capacity to just go out and buy a hotel. We needed lenders who could help,” Dr. Knapp explained. “When you’re trying to get approved for a lot of money to make your dream come true, to give back to the community and get these wonderful children off the wait-list, it can feel like a lot. But Josh made it easy on us. He followed up with me constantly and made the whole process less daunting. We needed that support.”

Thus began a 20-month renovation, with the newly-remodeled Knapp Center opening in December 2023. And spoiler alert: Extra restrooms weren’t the only added perk.  

Amenities for Autism

Walking down the themed hallways of the Knapp Center, it’s clear that every last detail was thoughtfully designed.

Take, for instance, the soft gym where kids can earn to play in ball pits and on swings while also working on their gross motor skills. The room is padded from floor to ceiling so children can’t hurt themselves.

Or, strolling down the second floor (theme: safari!), the hallway is lined with Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic so that if there’s an outburst, no holes can be punched in the walls.

But that’s not all.

“When we sat down to plan this space, we asked ourselves, ‘What does a state-of-the-art facility look like for children with autism?’” Dr. Knapp explained. “We wanted to create a place that children wanted to come to every day to learn. The more a child wants to be here and motivated to learn, the easier it is for mommy and daddy to drop them off.”

Boy, did they deliver.

To start, the Knapp Center features a library stocked full of 15-hundred toys for children to check out. There’s also a gaming room complete with a Wii and Xbox, vending machines that dispense books or fidget toys, and a space known as Lego Landing.

Yes, it’s fun and games, but there’s also a science behind it.

“Every child that comes here has an individualized treatment plan, and they may also have a behavior plan,” said Dr. Knapp. “We reduce or eliminate problematic behaviors that we don’t want to see while increasing the skills we do want. Maybe it’s learning to follow directions, initiating conversations, or perhaps it’s learning to tie their shoes. As our children engage and learn in those behaviors, they earn tokens that they can exchange for a reinforcement item, such as one of the desired spaces.”

And the reinforcement items are learning experiences in themselves. The toy library, for instance, teaches kids life skills like waiting in line and sharing.

Come to find out, there’s a reason for everything in this building.

The Key to Success

Three words define the success that the Knapp Center has found for its kids: Evidence-based care.

The team uses what’s called Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). With this treatment, every child with autism receives one-on-one care that targets the remediation of the core symptoms of autism.  It’s considered by many pediatric experts to be the number one form of therapy.

“We will not engage in a practice here that isn’t backed by research,” explained Dr. Knapp. “If a therapist comes to me and says, ‘Hey, I heard about this new strategy we could try,’ I’ll say, ‘Show me research articles from peer-reviewed journals that support that strategy. As long as you can show me that, and I don’t show you just as many articles that say it doesn’t work, then we’ll trial it.’ Our kids aren’t going to be guinea pigs.”

While it may be a more costly method, it works. And insurers and policy makers agree, as this treatment is covered by the child’s medical insurance.

Children at the Knapp Center have a range of abilities. Some are nonverbal and might wear helmets because they engage in self-injurious behaviors. Others have above-average IQs but struggle connecting with their peers.

Dr. Knapp painted a picture.

“Remember back in middle school when it was so important to walk into the cafeteria and have a friend to sit with? Now picture being all alone, by yourself. I can only imagine how isolating that would be for a teen with autism. That’s what we’re here for. If a child comes to us with this profile, maybe they’re only here for a year. But we help them with improve social skills and social understanding, and then they transition back to their school. We put a plan in place to build their skill sets so they can go into mainstream society and be successful.”

One such success story? A child who walked into the toy library as we were writing this article.

“Thank you,” he said with a grin as he checked out a toy and left.

Dr. Knapp beamed, a glint in her eye. She leaned over and whispered, “When he first started coming here, he didn’t talk at all.”