Making Connections Speech Language Therapy

Making Connections Speech Language Therapy It is our belief that each child has unique capabilities, talents, and the ability to learn from others. Most important, we want the children to have fun!

Speech Language Pathology Services (Individual and Group)
*Social Skills (Pragmatic Language and Play)
*Language/Literacy (Receptive and Expressive Language)
*Articulation/Phonology
*Teletherapy
*Parent Coaching and Education
*Consultation Services Our groups are designed to help children with social learning differences learn how to better navigate their world by enhancing their social, play, language, and interpersonal skills. Our groups help children build on existing social skill strengths while providing structured opportunities to develop positive relationships with others. Making Connections offers groups throughout the year for children with social and communication differences of various age levels. Each group session length will vary dependent on holidays and school calendars. During group sessions, we focus on enhancing a variety of skills such as: social communication, play and cooperative game skills, self-help skills, managing and expressing personal feelings, and non-verbal communication skills. We use a variety of methods to teach and support children including visual structure, schedules, social stories, zones of regulation, calming strategies, rewards, and transitional cues. We utilize ideas from the Social Thinking curriculum. These groups are appropriate for children who are able to participate and function in a small group setting with minimal one-to-one support. Our groups focus on developing individual strategies to help your child learn how to be a productive and active member of a group and/or classroom. The groups focus on developing play skills with peers, body control and awareness, social interactions and conversations, and sharing interests. Our school year groups are as follows and they take place on Saturday mornings in South Durham. PreK and Kindergarten: 9:00am - 10:30am

Kindergarten - 1st Grade: 10:45am - 12:15pm

2nd Grade - 3rd Grade: 12:30pm - 2:00pm

4th Grade - 6th Grade: 12:30pm - 2:00pm



Biographies:
Jennifer Kirschner (aka “Ms. Jen”) co-founded Making Connections with Jenny Eignraugh, who currently works at TEACCH, back in 2001 and has been running the groups ever since! Jennifer received her Master’s of Science in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences in 2000 from Purdue University. She began her career seeing adults in the hospital setting for a short period before taking a job in the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools in 2001, where she found her passion for working with children. Jennifer continues to work in the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools part time while running her private practice Making Connections, serving children in their homes, day care centers, and schools. Jennifer is bilingual (Spanish) and has had the privilege of presenting on topics such as Assessment and Treatment of Second Language Disorders and Dynamic Assessment at state conferences. Special interests include: Autism, English language learners, articulation/phonology, helping children with receptive expressive, and pragmatic language disorders, and providing family and teacher education and counseling. She loves being able to build relationships with my students and families! Virginia Welford (aka “Ms. Ginny”) joined Making Connections as a substitute therapist in the 2013-2014 academic year. Fast forward to 2020, when “Ms. Ginny” joined “Ms. Jen” on a permanent basis to provide social language services for families and children in the triangle area. Virginia received her Master’s of Science in Communication Disorders and Sciences in 1991 from University of South Florida. She began her career seeing children and adults in hospital, rehabilitation and clinic settings. Virginia worked in a school system for 10 years with a preschool intervention program. Since 2007, Virginia has been in private practice, providing services for children and families in homes, schools, and via teletherapy. In the past, she has the taught master level courses at NCCU in childhood language and speech disorders, dysphagia, and aphasia. Virginia has been privileged to present on topics such as Childhood Apraxia of Speech and Trachs/Ventilator for the SLP at the state conference. Special interests include: articulation/phonology, ASD, childhood apraxia of speech, helping children with receptive and expressive language disorders, social language disorders, and providing family and teacher education and counseling. I love the power of communication and connectedness.

Meet our Speech Language Pathologist Graduate Students! We are happy to welcome these two wonderful students to Making C...
09/05/2024

Meet our Speech Language Pathologist Graduate Students! We are happy to welcome these two wonderful students to Making Connections. Together we are going to have a great year!

We are so excited to welcome all our Making Connection families and to welcome some new faces! We look forward to seeing...
09/02/2024

We are so excited to welcome all our Making Connection families and to welcome some new faces! We look forward to seeing everyone on Saturday September 7th for our first session of the new school year. Here's a little get to know you information about Ms. Jen and Ms. Ginny!

Our Fall Social Learning and Play Groups are starting soon and filling up quickly! The groups meet on Saturdays in sout...
08/28/2024

Our Fall Social Learning and Play Groups are starting soon and filling up quickly! The groups meet on Saturdays in south Durham. The Fall dates are: September 7, 14, 21; October 5, 19, 26; November 2, 9, 16; and December 7 & 14.
Preschool: 9:00am-10:30am
K/1st grade: 10:45am-12:15pm
2nd/3rd grade: 12:30pm-2:00pm
4th-6th grade: 12:30pm-2:00pm
Please contact us if you are interested in your child joining our groups! 919-358-3179

We have our Fall social groups up and going and we've added a new time slot! All groups meet on Saturdays in South Durh...
09/07/2022

We have our Fall social groups up and going and we've added a new time slot! All groups meet on Saturdays in South Durham. Our Pre-K groups runs from 9:00am - 10:30am, our Kindergarten/1st grade group runs from 10:45am - 12:15 pm, our 2nd/3rd grade group runs from 12:30pm - 2:00pm, and our 4th-6th grade group runs from 2:15pm -3:45pm. We currently have openings available for our Pre-K group, our 2nd/3rd grade group, and our 4th-6th grade group. Please call if you are interested in learning more about our groups: 919-358-3179

We are planning for our Power of the Partner social groups this starting June 14. We have a few more spots left if you ...
06/04/2022

We are planning for our Power of the Partner social groups this starting June 14. We have a few more spots left if you think your child would be interested in joining the groups. This is a 6 week long social skills group that will focus on learning and improving conversational skills with a partner, such as appropriate greetings, asking questions, making comments, keeping the conversation going, and ending conversations through games, art activities, role play, and direct teaching. We will take up to 4 children per group and break them into smaller groups of 2 to really work on those skills. The group times are 2:00-3:00pm, 3:00-4:00pm, and 4:00-5:00 pm. If you have a need for a specific time, please let us know as well.

The dates are June 14-July 28th (off the week of July 4-8). These groups will be 60 minutes long on Tuesday & Thursday afternoons.
Cost: $80.00
Location: Triangle Grace Church, 5001 Tudor Lane, Durham, NC. 27713
You can sign up for 1 or 2 days per week.

Spring Session is up and going and we have a few spots left! The dates are March 19 and 26 and April 9, 16, and 30. Cu...
03/12/2022

Spring Session is up and going and we have a few spots left! The dates are March 19 and 26 and April 9, 16, and 30. Currently serving children Pre-k through 6th grade. If you are interested in enrolling in the groups, please call 919-358-3170 or email: makingconnections4@gmail.

02/12/2022

Our Winter sessions are in full swing. We have 2 more Saturday sessions for the Winter (February 19 and 26). We have a couple of spots open if you would like to try it out. Please call: 919-358-3179.

10/03/2021

Dear Families,

Our Fall Social Groups have begun! We are meeting in person in Durham. Pre-K group meets from 9:00am-10:30am, Kindergarten -2nd grade group meets from 10:45am-12:15pm, and 3rd -6th grade groups meets from 12:30pm-2:00pm. As always, we target skills with a focus on play, peer interactions, and conversation skills through structured play. This month we will be working on the group plan from the Social Thinking Curriculum. We have some available spots. Please contact us if you are interested: makingconnections4@gmail.com or 919-358-3179

02/02/2021

Dear Families,
We are now holding groups in person outdoors. Groups meet on Saturday mornings at 5001 Tudor Lane, Durham, NC. 27713. Pre-k groups meets from 9:00am-10:30am, K-3 group meets from 10:45am-12:15pm. You can find more information on our webpage: Makingconnectionsspeechandlanguage.com. Call (919-358-3179) or email (makingconnections4@gmaill.com) to reserve your spot!

10/27/2020

Dear Families,

We are now holding groups in person. Groups meet on Saturday mornings at 5001 Tudor Lane, Durham, NC. 27713. Pre-k groups meets from 9:00am-10:30am, K-3 group meets from 10:45am-12:15pm. You can find more information on our webpage: Makingconnectionsspeechandlanguage.com. Call (919-358-3179) or email (makingconnections4@gmaill.com) to reserve your spot!

06/10/2020

Hi Families,
We are now offering individual and group speech language therapy sessions online via teletherapy. We have expanded our services to include social and pragmatic language skills, language and literacy skills, articulation and phonology skills, parent coaching and education, and consultative services. Please contact us if you are interested in finding out more about Making Connections: 919-358-3179; makingconnections4@gmail.com.

06/10/2020

Address

Durham, NC
27713

Opening Hours

9am - 4pm

Telephone

(919) 358-3179

Website

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Our Story

Making Connections offers groups throughout the year for children with social and communication difficulties of various age levels. Each group session's length will vary dependent on holidays and school calendars. We use a variety of methods to teach and support children including visual structure, schedules, rewards, and transitional cues. These groups are appropriate for children who are able to participate and function in a small group setting with minimal one-to-one support. Our school year groups are as follows and they take place on Saturday mornings. Classroom Connections (9-10:30am): Preparing for the classroom! This class will focus on developing individualized strategies to help your child learn how to be a productive, active member of a group and/or classroom. The focus of this group will be to work on play sequences and paths, body control and awareness, social conversation and learning finger-plays. A brief snack time will be included during the hour and a half as well, to help facilitate a very natural social time in the day. This group is for preschool aged children 3-5 years old. Playful Pirates (10:45am-12:15pm): This group will be focused on taking our group social skills to the next level. Navigating social skills at school (cafeteria, on playground, in class). We will work on being an active member of the group, engaging others in conversation, and sharing interests. A brief snack time will be included during the hour and a half as well, to help facilitate a very natural social time in the day. This group is for elementary school aged children 5-10 years old. Sara Gage and Jennifer Kirschner are the group leaders. Together, these caring and dedicated group leaders have over 35 years of experience serving children with Autism and their families. Both have advanced degrees in the field, Jen with hers in Speech and Hearing Sciences/Communication Disorders and Sara with hers in Special Education. Substitute group leaders will be used in case of illness or emergency.