The Fresno RiteCare Childhood Language Center provides life-changing speech, language and literacy treatment of childhood language disorders, free of charge to children and their families. The National Center for Learning Disabilities reports that one in five children have learning disabilities requiring the services of a certified Speech-Language Pathologist. These children often suffer deeply from low self-esteem and low self-confidence. Early intervention is essential to mitigating persistent, long-term social, emotional and academic challenges. Literacy therapy provided by licensed Speech-Language Pathologists is vitally important to children who struggle daily with the task of reading and writing. Many of whom become used to being teased, ignored, or even scolded when attempting to read, or when asked to write. Yet, countless children are inappropriately socially promoted from one grade level to the next and suffer from extremely low self-confidence and have difficulty succeeding academically. Each year over 2,000 children receive therapy by licensed Speech Pathologists at the Fresno RiteCare Childhood Language Center and the other 13 RiteCare Childhood Language Centers across the State. Literacy is the ability to read and write. Reading is a multifaceted process to make meaning from print. Writing is the process of generating text. The following skills are required for successful reading and writing: Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken words. Understanding that spoken words and syllables are made up of discrete sounds. Phonics instruction teaches children that specific sounds belong to specific letters or specific letter patterns. Reading fluency is the ability to read with consistent speed, accuracy, and expression. Children read fluently when they are able to recognize words automatically and are no longer focused on how to read. Vocabulary is knowledge of words and their meaning. A strong vocabulary assists with reading comprehension. Reading Comprehension is the ability for a child to understand what they have read as well as to understand what they have written. Spelling is the forming of words from letters according to accepted rules. Learning to spell and learning to read rely on the same underlying knowledge (i.e. relationships between letters and sounds). At the Fresno RiteCare Childhood Language Center we offer a variety of intervention models to assist children in the development of their expressive and receptive language skills. A majority of the time, children are seen in one-on-one intensive therapy sessions year-round. When appropriate, children may participate in small group therapy sessions to help generalize skills to new and more challenging settings. All literacy therapy programs are individualized. Sessions are conducted by our licensed and certified Speech-Language Pathologist.