Making Connections Speech Language Therapy

r 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.