Home

HJELTE-PHILLIPS SPEECH & LANGUAGE CENTER

The Hjelte-Phillips Speech & Language Center at Villa Esperanza is a community clinic that provides individualized communication therapy to each unique client that comes through our door. We work with clients to reach their greatest potential in a warm and compassionate therapy environment that includes parents, teachers and caregivers in the process.

Our clinicians have a wealth of experience treating speech and language needs resulting from phonological and articulation disorders, learning differences, neurodevelopmental and intellectual disabilities, and acquired brain injuries. We have specialized expertise in treating children birth to three years old, individuals with autism spectrum disorder, and nonspeaking or minimally verbal clients who need assistive technology including augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). In addition, we provide training, support and education to related professionals across the Los Angeles County region. Click here to view The Owl, a publication created by the speech and language center's persons served.

Villa Speech Center General Information

Services:
Speech and Language Assessment
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Assessment, Therapy and Consultation
Individual Speech Therapy
Family-based Speech Therapy
Social Groups
Staff Trainings: Autism, AAC Implementation, Supervision, Classroom Lessons for Students with Communication Challenges
TouchChat Training

Treatment is individualized and may include elements of:
DIR-Floortime Therapy
High, Mid, and Low Tech Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
Complexity Theory for Highly Unintelligible Children/Phonological Disorders
Neurodiversity-Affirming Interventions
Vocational Training
Total Communication Approach
Positive Behavior Support
Aided Language Stimulation
Social Narratives
Visualization Strategies for Language Comprehension
Phonological Awareness Training
Functional Communication Skills
Early Intervention Strategies

Funding:
Contracted with:
- Kaiser Permanente
- Local regional centers
- Local school districts
Other options:
- Private Pay
- Claims assistance as an out-of-network insurance provider

Villa's Speech Team

Kimberly Tan
M.A., CCC-SLP

Speech-Language Pathologist

Kimberly has practiced as a school-based speech-language pathologist for more than 20 years. She has experience treating a diverse population of clients and specializes in working with adolescents and young adults. She enjoys sharing about the field of speech-language pathology and teaching others by acting as a clinical supervisor at Chapman University.

Contact Kimberly

Cynthia D. Young
M.S., CCC-SLP

Speech-Language Pathologist

Cynthia is a school-based speech-language pathologist who also has experience working in the clinical setting with young children, teens, and adults with a variety of diagnoses including: autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, and CVI. She has experience working with people who have receptive and expressive language disorders or delays and those who are highly unintelligible. She is skilled in early intervention strategies, improving speech intelligibility and phonological awareness skills, and developing and implementing an AAC plan for those who are non-verbal. Her goal is to incorporate functional communication skills into the daily lives of clients and their families.