Supporting AAC at Home and Beyond
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) gives children a powerful way to express themselves when speech is difficult or unreliable. Whether AAC is used temporarily or long-term, success depends on more […]
Who We Are
We are a non-profit providing personalized speech-language therapy and audiology services to children ages birth to nine years for up to two years. We are proud of the work we are able to do for the children of our community. We offer a variety of services that could benefit your child.
How We Started
The Scottish Rite Foundation sponsored the clinic under the name “Scottish Rite Clinic for Childhood Language Disorders” beginning September 1990 on the University of Minnesota – Duluth campus.
In 1999, the clinic moved to a facility on 2nd Street in Duluth. Requiring additional and better suited clinical space, the foundation acquired a neighboring property in 2013 and began a capital campaign to fund the construction of a new, $6.9 million facility.
A Big Step
Providing an audiology suite, therapy rooms and autism suites, the new building opened its doors in 2016. In January 2018, the Scottish Rite Foundation became an affiliated charity with the Minnesota Masonic Charities (MMC) family of charities. In doing so, the foundation secured the clinic’s ability to provide critical treatment in perpetuity to children desperate to communicate.
MMC was a natural partner. Minnesota Masonic Charities had long recognized the important work provided by the clinic and had supported its efforts through annual Mission Grants. The integration allows the clinic to carry on operations, with the vision to allocate donor funds to expand services to those families on our waiting list.
Recent Blogs from Masonic Children's Clinic
JOINING IN: Understanding and Celebrating Your Child’s Stimming
What Is Stimming? “Stimming” refers to self-stimulatory behaviors—like hand-flapping, rocking, spinning, humming, tapping, or repeating words or movements. These behaviors help autistic children regulate emotions, express joy, manage stress, and […]
Shared Book Reading
Shared book reading, interactive reading between a child and an adult, is a powerful and engaging way to support language development across all ages. The benefits of shared book reading […]
Everyday Moments Matter: Modeling Core Vocabulary for AAC Users
Core vocabulary words are the 200-450 words that make up 80% of what people use in everyday conversation across age, setting, gender, and disability. These are the words that are […]
First-Then: Communication Milestones
As pediatric speech/language pathologists, we often encourage parents to use “first-then” statements to help build a child’s language skills. For example, “First shoes on and Then outside” or “First clean-up […]
Modeling Language from Your Child’s Perspective
When modeling communication for a child with a language delay, you may have been given the advice to “speak from the child’s perspective.” This means putting yourself in their shoes […]