The Sacramento Scottish Rite Language Center provides diagnostic and treatment services for children with delays in speech, language and literacy. The Center is one of more than 165 Scottish Rite Language Centers throughout the United States. Services are provided free of charge. Masonic affiliation is not required. Additionally, the Center serves as a training site, providing internships and practicums for university students studying the field of Speech Language Pathology.
A child with a speech and language disorder has a special kind of developmental learning disability. Such children are often of average or above average intelligence but have not acquired speech or language in a normal manner. Their challenges may range from a mild articulation delay to a severe expressive and/or receptive language difficulty. Some of these children have difficulty understanding or remembering what is said to them. Others may understand, but cannot easily express, their own wishes and thoughts clearly. The effects of these deficits can be devastating emotionally, socially and academically to children and their families if the problem is not treated at an early age.
The Sacramento Scottish Rite Language Center, established in 1987, is housed in the Scottish Rite Masonic Center at the corner of H Street and Carlson Drive (across the street from the entrance to California State University, Sacramento). The Center serves children residing within the Sacramento Scottish Rite Bodies of Freemasonry service area which extends from Sacramento north to the Oregon state line and east to the Nevada state line.