We built something much larger
than a preschool.
An integrated early childhood development system — serving families from first concern through kindergarten and beyond. Clinical care, inclusive education, and a community platform, all under one roof in the Tri-Valley since 2001.
For more than two decades, School of Imagination and Happy Talkers have been the Tri-Valley's trusted answer to one of the hardest questions a parent can face: What do we do next? We bring together clinical services, inclusive education, and a warm community under one roof — so no family has to navigate developmental challenges alone.
More than a preschool. Here's the full picture.
We're often described as a preschool. That's one part of a much larger story.
No single discipline solves developmental challenges alone.
We provide all six — and coordinate them under one clinical team. All services through happytalkers.org.
How we got here.
In 2001, Charlene Sigman — a speech-language pathologist, preschool director, and certified ESDM therapist — launched Happy Talkers from a rented home in Pleasanton. What began as a small effort to help children with special needs quickly consumed her family's house, with every room dedicated to helping children thrive.
By 2003, demand had grown so much that Charlene and her family moved into a single bedroom to make room for more than 100 children each week. The families kept coming because the approach worked — and because no one else in the Tri-Valley was offering what she was building.
By 2008, Charlene expanded her vision to include School of Imagination, bringing inclusive early childhood education together with clinical services. In 2011, she and her husband Mitch Sigman partnered with the City of Dublin to open a permanent 12,000-square-foot center — a space built from the ground up to serve the whole child.
Today, that center is home to an integrated system that has served thousands of Tri-Valley families across more than two decades. The questions families ask haven't changed. Our ability to answer them has grown considerably.
What guides everything we do.
These aren't aspirational statements — they're the operating principles behind every clinical decision, every enrollment, and every community event.
Integrated care isn't our tagline. It's how we're built.
These are the real, operational reasons families and providers choose School of Imagination and Happy Talkers over other options in the Tri-Valley.