There are 19 RiteCare Childhood Language Centers across California, a program of the California Scottish Rite Foundation that provides life-changing speech therapy, language skills, and literacy services to more than 2,300 children at no cost to the families. The highly effective centers in many ways more than fill the gaps between what the public schools are able to provide and what is necessary to help the children achieve and thrive in their classrooms and in life, including working with kids who are younger than school age when the programs are particularly effective.
“The public schools do a great job, but they don’t have the flexibility or capacity to design a therapy session around the child’s specific needs,” explained Arthur L. Salazar, Jr., Executive Vice President and Board Secretary for the foundation. “Our programs also allow the parents to be much more engaged in the session, which gives them the opportunity to be able to practice some of those exercises at home. That really helps reinforce the lessons, which makes a big difference.”
The goals for each child depend on the level of speech and language delays, Salazar said.
“It can be something as small as allowing a child to be able to say several words to their mom: ‘I’m hungry’ or ‘I love you,’ simple things that they weren’t able to communicate before. It might be helping to overcome their stutter and gain a confidence that allows them to improve their grades at school and go on to college. It’s pretty amazing how some of our clients from years ago have gone on to become very successful, including lawyers who now advocate for services for children with disabilities, and others in leadership roles with youth groups. They get confidence in public speaking and in themselves that they matter, and they realize they’re valued and that they can do anything.”
What’s even more notable for locals is the superior effectiveness of the Santa Barbara RiteCare Childhood Language Center, which stands out from the other 18 RiteCare Language Centers in a number of ways. Santa Barbara’s center, for example, is the only one to offer Camp Chit Chat – a fun and socially interactive camp for children ages three-and-a-half to six with mild to moderate speech and language delays. Each camp participant participates in a small group of no more than three same-aged peers also working on similar skills such as articulation, language, fluency, and social communication. The popular camp is an excellent opportunity for children to maintain essential communication skills during the summer – when regular therapy services are not available – through fun activities that also develop social and emotional confidence. A closing picnic at the end of summer for all the kids and their families helps to build the Center’s supportive community network of understanding and encouragement.
The camp was created by the center’s director, Speech-Language Pathologist Julie DeAngelis – who has worked at RiteCare for nearly 17 years – and is co-run by fellow SLP and Center Program Director Summer Calvert. Community support has provided the funding to create and maintain Camp Chit Chat.
“Santa Barbara has something special,” said Salazar. “The way that Julie and Summer have been able to connect with the children and their families, plus the dynamics of the Santa Barbara community, has created a unique community engagement at the center. Camp Chit Chat has become an important bridge to mitigate some of the ‘summer slide’ that might otherwise take place, especially with children who are struggling with speech and literacy skills.”
The Santa Barbara RiteCare Center also excels through the connection with UCSB’s undergraduate program, in which students serve as interns at the center, providing an asset to both the university and the center.
“The Center gets more staff to help with things like Camp Chit Chat throughout the year, while those undergrads who are considering careers as speech pathologists have an opportunity to see what that profession looks like up close and personal,” Salazar said.
The interns also help out with Brain Lab, the software-based literacy intervention program for children in 2nd to 6th grade – which Santa Barbara RiteCare’s center is the only one to offer. Peabody Charter School referred many of its students to the after-school program, and was so impressed that the school later created its own reading intervention curriculum based on Brain Lab. The program is in Santa Barbara due to the directors’ impetus.
“You have to have a special credential to be able to supervise the use of that software,” Salazar explained. “Julie and Summer took the initiative on their own to obtain those credentials.”
Last year, Calvert also completed an intensive training to get certified in dyslexia intervention, allowing the Santa Barbara RiteCare to provide additional skills to children with that learning disorders.
“They do phenomenal work there because for Julie and Summer, speech therapy and language services aren’t just what they do during their business hours,” Salazar said. “It’s a passion.”
All that wouldn’t be possible without community support, because the Foundation itself only provides about 15-20 percent of the funding necessary to run the center, covering administrative expenses, while local grants and giving cover the salaries, materials and more. Recently, through community generosity, SB RiteCare was finally able to hire a third SLP, which will allow the center to reduce the waiting list for its services.
“The community has really stepped up with solid support that has grown to the point where we had enough of a comfort level to be able to hire additional staff and be able to sustain it,” Salazar said. “That means up to another 35 families will be getting the help they need to make a huge difference in their lives.”
By Steven Libowitz
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