Where Children Find their Voices

Little Ryan was only three years old when he was diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), an uncommon motor planning disorder that makes it difficult for children to produce sounds and sequence sounds into words. CAS requires a lot of time and therapy to overcome, and it takes an equal measure of patience from speech pathologists and the kids themselves.

When the toddler first came to Santa Barbara RiteCare, a nonprofit center that provides speech and language services to young children, Ryan could only utter four sounds and less than 10 percent of his speech was intelligible. It took two years and three therapy sessions a week, but Ryan made a quantum leap in progress. By the time he graduated, about 75 percent of his speech was intelligible.

Overcoming speech disorders like CAS also requires early intervention, a RiteCare specialty. Ryan would often come to sessions with his twin brother Bryan, who was quickly diagnosed with a milder form of a speech disorder and enrolled in therapy as well.

During summers, both brothers attended Camp Chit Chat, a fun and socially interactive program to help preschool-age children with their communication skills. When they showed signs of reading difficulty, they were enrolled in RiteCare’s Brain Lab program, a literacy intervention program for children from second to sixth grade.

The twin brothers are two of the more than 150 success stories who receive Santa Barbara RiteCare’s speech and language services every year. The programs rely entirely on donations and are completely free to the children’s families.

“Their parents would not have been able to afford any sort of therapy outside of what we were able to give them,” says Julie DeAngelis, center director and speech-language pathologist.

Ryan and Bryan are 10 now, having aged out of all the Center’s programs, but they are forever changed by their experience. 

“What’s neat is that communication is the most basic thing that everyone needs to be successful, and these children go through an invaluable life experience of overcoming adversity,” DeAngelis says. “It’s empowering for them to have that at a young age.”