[Noozhawk’s note: Third in a series sponsored by the Hutton Parker Foundation. Click here for the first article, and click here for the second.]
Santa Barbara RiteCare Childhood Language Center, a philanthropy of the California Scottish Rite Foundation, is one of 170 RiteCare Centers across the United States providing speech and language therapy to preschoolers through sixth-graders.
Located on the fourth floor of the stately Masonic Center in downtown Santa Barbara, SB RiteCare embraces the community it serves — providing critical services at no charge to local families, and partnering with other Santa Barbara organizations.
Peabody Charter School has been working closely with SB RiteCare for the past two years, referring many of its students to the center’s after-school Brain Lab, a software-based intervention program designed to improve reading skills among elementary-aged students.
“The impact of providing reading intervention to emerging readers is huge,” Clare Krock, Peabody Charter School’s assistant principal, told Noozhawk.
“Reading is the foundational skill of education, and by providing the support that students need early in their educational career we are offering them the opportunity to succeed academically.”
Peabody was so impressed with SB RiteCare’s program that the school created its own reading intervention curriculum, modeled after Brain Lab.
“It’s exciting that our curriculum has inspired a public-school program,” said Julie DeAngelis, a speech- language pathologist and SB RiteCare center director.
While working to accomplish the same goals, the programs are distinct.
SB RiteCare is more individualized and focused on speech therapy while Peabody is instruction-dependent with reading specialists and trained teacher-tutors who deliver daily reading intervention.
The collaboration is of great value to students in the community, as the organizations collaborate on ideas and work closely to monitor progress and support shared students.
Santiago is one such student. He participated in SB RiteCare’s Brain Lab when he was in the fourth grade. As an English learner, he faced reading challenges and was eventually diagnosed with dyslexia.
Peabody School was also involved with Santiago’s therapy and by the time he graduated from sixth grade, he was reading successfully and scoring high grades, according to his mother, Monica.
“SB RiteCare is saving lives, because there are not many places to find this kind of program,” said Monica, who was originally refereed to the center when her daughter, Renata, was nearly 3 years old and couldn’t speak. Renata is now a Peabody third-grader and learning to read at grade level.
“I’m very thankful to Peabody School for the original referral to SB RiteCare. The best part of the program is that my kids never felt like it was school work because SB RiteCare makes it very fun so the kids really enjoyed going to these programs.”
SB RiteCare’s Brain Lab serves all students in the community, and the center hosts regular evaluations to assess need. Free screenings are held periodically at SB Rite Care and twice per year in partnership with the Santa Barbara Public Library.
“We appreciate our partnership with the library because they reach an audience that may not know about us,” DeAngelis said.
SB RiteCare has presented at toddler story times, discussing speech and language milestones.
“We find that parents have a lot of questions and this outreach has been incredibly beneficial to families, addressing concerns and directing new students to our programs,” DeAngelis noted.
SB RiteCare has also partnered with CALM (Child Abuse Listening Mediation) in the past, thanks to funding from First 5 Santa Barbara County, enabling parent education programs discussing issues that include bullying, dyslexia and early literacy.
The parent education component is critical to SB RiteCare’s success.
“Parents are the secret to our success,” DeAngelis acknowledged. “SB RiteCare is unique because we see parents weekly, whereas the public schools may only see parents once or twice per year.
“Our parents observe the sessions so they know how to target specific goals, and this is consistent with all of our programs.”
Parents observe lessons through one-way mirrors, enabling them to replicate and maintain instruction at home. They also meet with the therapist after each session to discuss their child’s individual goals.
The time with parents often provides emotional support as well.
“A lot of our kids have significant behavioral needs in the classroom, and we are able to coordinate care with their teachers and provide referrals for parents,” DeAngelis explained.
Amanda, whose son, Eli, was diagnosed with apraxia, a speech sound disorder, emphasized how important that interaction is.
“As a parent of a child with a communications disorder, having knowledge of my son’s goals, and specifics of what he is working on, and feeling like I have a role in his therapy is one of the most important aspects of his treatment,” she said.
At the end of each session, Amanda meets with Eli’s therapist and receives home activities to incorporate the language practice into their everyday lives.
“I really appreciate these meetings because now Eli gets therapy through the school district as well, and the communication is not quite the same,” she said. “I don’t really know what happens in those sessions.”
To keep up with growing demand for SB RiteCare’s services, the center partners with UC Santa Barbara, providing students studying speech language pathology an opportunity to volunteer with Brain Lab participants, gaining valuable learning and community service experience.
“While students present at SB RiteCare with distinct challenges and needs, the one thing that they all have in common is that they thrive at our language center,” DeAngelis said.
“And that creates a ripple effect impacting the greater Santa Barbara community, making it a better place to live because children are reaching their full potential.”
The nonprofit SB RiteCare relies on private donations and grants from community foundations so that no child is ever turned away based on financial need. Click here for more information about SB RiteCare. Click here to make an online donation.
— Ann Pieramici is a Noozhawk contributing writer. She can be reached at news@noozhawk.com.