Screen the Team…LIKE A BOSS
Happy Happy Hump Day.
I wanted to share with you something we are going through that I thought would be helpful to your cause and the screening process for the staff that will work with your child.
So we’ve been getting ABA through insurance for a while now, and our FABULOUS RBT has completed her Masters’s Program to become a BCBA (YAY). However, that means she’s leaving the team as our main RBT.
We need to find a replacement snappy-like, as she’ll be fading out and a new RBT will be fading in. Over the summer we started the process of finding this replacement and went with a referral from another BCBA I knew and it was a HUGE MISTAKE, the tech was lovely but very low energy, and my daughter is very willful (my daughter is a Boss in training like her Mamma) so even though the intentions might have been good the chemistry was not right and she was losing instructional control of the sessions.
So What’s a Warrior Mom to do?!?! She takes matters into her own hands of course! Instead of waiting for the next dud to be placed, I contacted the agency and told them I want to screen the next candidate.
“You want to speak to them?” Agency asks, kind of shocked…
“Absolutely,” I say – Like the Mama Bear that I am!
Because my RBT will be leaving in a matter of a few months, and they already struck out with who they originally sent me, wasting precious weeks, I feel I don’t have any more time to burn through even more duds, and the next thing I know we have ZERO good RBTs working my daughter’s case. That is NOT happening on my watch.
So I screened my team LIKE A BOSS.
I phone interviewed 2 candidates that the Agency would have happily tried to place in my home, and both wouldn’t have lasted a week.
How could I have been so sure???? Well…
-No one knows our children better than us
-Mom can sniff out a dud because I NEVER question my instincts
I went back to the agency in both instances and explained I don’t think either is a proper fit, I was urged to “give them a chance” and if it didn’t work they’d find another candidate.
“Sure”, I said, “I’ll try for a week”
Candidate 1 – Never showed up for her first day.
Candidate 2 – Backed out a day after saying she was ready to work!
I’m 2 for 2 🙂 but not happily though – we need an RBT and this was just another reminder to me that to the Agency it’s about business, for me it’s personal.
So as our hunt continues, I share this with you… YOU ARE QUALIFIED ENOUGH to screen the people who work with your child.
No one knows their kid better than you, just go with your Mommy Gut. Screen your team LIKE A BOSS, interview them, and you will NEVER go wrong.
Till Next Time!
xoxoxo Michelle
P.S. – Did you know I’ve created a self-study course called Advocating Like a Boss!? You can find more information on it by clicking HERE.
​P.S.S. – For anyone who is looking for support – I want to invite you to join my Private Facebook Group, Champions for our Children. I am in there daily coaching our members and answering any questions you might have!
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