Bio

About me

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Photo of Catherine M. Villagran
Catherine M. Villagran, M.A., CCC-SLP

I thought I wanted to be like Annie Sullivan—the woman who taught Helen Keller to communicate. But as I pursued my education, I realized that the deaf and hard of hearing classroom was not the right place for me.

I enjoyed focusing on one child at a time, figuring out the fascinating puzzle that is each child. At the same time, I realized that I really enjoyed working with parents! It was so rewarding watching their faces light up when they learned something new and when their efforts helped their children.

I’ve been a speech-language pathologist for more than 25 years. I launched Villagran Speech Therapy in 2020 and continue to serve as the Speech Pathologist in residence at Insight Collective. I have a long association with The Frostig School in Altadena, where I provide speech and language therapy and consultation.

I joined Briggs and Associates in Pasadena in 1991 and worked with clients there until 2020 when Margaret Briggs relocated to Santa Barbara. We still collaborate! I started my career as a speech therapist for the San Bernardino County Schools’ Parent Infant Program.

Areas of expertise

  • Early intervention specialization (0-5 years)
  • Play based, family based, speech and language therapy
  • Oral motor treatment, feeding therapy
  • Treatment for Childhood Verbal Apraxia of Speech , Autism, Tongue Thrust remediation, speech sound remediation, language therapy
  • Stuttering remediation
  • Development and presentation of in-services for allied professionals, support groups, parents, and preschool teachers
  • Supervisor for SLP (speech language pathologist) clinical fellow candidates, interns, and SLPPA (speech language pathologist paraprofessional/aide) students
  • Consultant for early intervention classrooms and special education preschool programs
  • Independent Educational Evaluations for children in K – 5th grade

Education

I earned both a bachelor’s degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology and a Master’s degree in Speech Pathology from California State University, Los Angeles—but that was just the beginning. I continued my training to learn new ways to help families. My specializations and certifications include:

  • Myofunctional Therapy
    This field of treatment focuses on the muscles in your child’s face, mouth, and tongue.
  • SCERTS
    This framework is designed to help children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) become better at social communication through a multidisiplinary approach.
  • PROMPT
    This treatment approach targets the specific movements of the mouth for individual speech sounds. Particulary helpful for children with Apraxia of speech.
  • Hanen Parent Training
    This popular program trains parents in ways to help their child’s communication development at home.

In addition, I am trained in Neurodevelopmental Treatment (NDT). Download a PDF my curriculum vitae.

Paula L. Johnson created this site in collaboration with Catherine Villagran using the Hestia theme for WordPress.