“Why is he still talking like a baby? He’s four years old,” asked my mother at our son's fourth birthday party. I never really noticed. After all, I could understand him. Everyone in the family could understand him. So the process of observing his communication with strangers began. I soon realized that I, or a member of the family, was acting as a “translator” for him. He would say, “I wan pe th do”. I would say, “He wants to pet your dog”. We had him evaluated for speech delay at UC Davis Medical Center. I attended the hour long testing, and was immediately struck and saddened by the wrong answers, and unintelligible answers my son was giving to the speech therapist. What went wrong? Why was his speech delayed? I sat in shock as the written results were explained to my husband and me. He tested below the 10 %ile and even the 3%ile in nearly every category of speech.
I cannot remember who referred me to Scottish Rite Temple—but that person is truly an angel. Even though he qualified for public school services, he made rapid improvement and was “graduated” from speech therapy services even though his scores were merely approaching 10-20% ile. Scottish Rite therapists worked with our son and our family on a weekly basis, and provided hope and promise that he could be a successful student and could master speaking English clearly. We were most concerned with his ability to communicate with non-familiar listeners, and this was addressed immediately at Scottish Rite. We have worked with two therapists who have been dedicated and committed to his thriving and enjoying reading and speaking. The support we have received at Scottish Rite absolutely exceeds our every expectation. There has never been a financial cost involved, yet the skills of the speech therapists are absolutely top notch. The center has become a part of our family.
Today, our son is a confident 2nd grader who has won multiple speech contests! He placed first place in his school speech meet for a stirring recitation of, “The boy who cried wolf.” He has a huge personality and speaks non stop. He engages adults and children alike, and is very clear in his conversation. We could not have done the work that was required to transform our child from “baby talk,” and the major deficits in the area of language, without the help of the Scottish Rite Center. As determined parents we engaged the public school system, paid for private sessions, utilized the services at Sac State but absolutely nothing has been more valuable than the help he has received at Scottish Rite Language Center. Our son loves being “in speech”. He loves the confidence he gets when he announces at school, “I know about verbs already…I learned it at speech.”
We are thrilled to report that our child has developed into a great student who is at grade level in a competitive school. His teachers are not aware that this is the same child who no one could understand just a few years ago. This is the same child who would get frustrated because he had to repeat the same sentence many times for others to understand. This is the same child who was at risk for becoming a poor reader and for not obtaining acceptable comprehension. We are forever grateful to all the Staff at Scottish Rite, and especially the clinicians who never let us give up and who always promised to support our child so that he would excel at speech and language. Scottish Rite is a godsend and we heartily encourage other parents to seek the help we were so fortunate to receive at Scottish Rite. Thank you so very much and our child’s future is bright because of your presence in the Sacramento Area.
The Watkins Family