We recently connected with Carly Dorfman and have shared our conversation below.

Carly, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Owning my own private practice had always been a long term goal of mine. This dates back to when I decided I wanted to be a speech language pathologist. I knew I needed to gain experience in the industry in order to find out what kind of therapy I wanted to focus on and how I wanted to help the families I treated with the idea of private practice always in the back of my mind. I never felt the timing was right but the pandemic gave me the opportunity to leave my steady 9-5 job and create something of my own. In the summer of 2021, I got COVID and was locked in my room for 10 days quarantining. It was during that time that the concept of KIDnection was born and came together. A big part of my business is seeing private speech therapy clients but I knew I wanted a way to diversify my offerings and try something new. A friend of mine told me about an SLP in her community leading mommy and me classes and something just clicked immediately. I knew there was a big need for that in my community and something that I could put a communication spin on. I began with one class with two people in it and now I have multiple classes per week serving over 50 families. The classes incorporate speech strategies into music, movement, storytime, and sensory play. I can reach a larger audience through the classes which helps to get my name into the community. When my caseload for private clients is full, I can always offer them to join the class. When a private client could benefit from socialization, I recommend joining a class. And when a family that attends my class needs an SLP, they already have access to me.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a mom, a speech-language pathologist, and a parent educator specializing in babies and toddlers. My passion is teaching parents how to play and engage with their little ones in a way that supports connection and communication development. I have over 10 years of experience treating children of all developmental levels. I specialize in a child and family centered approach using evidence-based best practices to improve speech, receptive & expressive language, fluency, and oral motor skills. I am also a parent educator leading infant and toddler enrichment classes in the community and providing resources and support to parents/caregivers. KIDnection’s unique Baby and Me classes utilize play, language, music and sensory/art activities to stimulate and support all areas of development. Caregivers will feel empowered to support their baby’s learning and development using the time and resources already available to them. All classes incorporate opportunities for caregivers to share and connect and support each other too.

The personal relationships I have with every person who attends the classes and the opportunity to create friendships with the families in the community is what sets me and KIDnection apart from other similar providers. I am a woman in the trenches of parenthood dealing with a lot of the same things that my clients are. The difference is, I am a few years ahead of them. The empathy I have for my families comes from a real place of truth and experience. I can be a speech and language development expert but also bring the human aspect and keep it real because I am dealing with keeping it all together, just like them.

I would also consider myself a lifelong learner. I am always looking to add to my clinical repertoire to better serve my clients. I love reading new research articles in my field and taking continuing education courses to learn new strategies and techniques. I am constantly asking for client feedback to learn how I can create classes and offerings that my community needs. I will forever continue to learn and grow, which I feel is the key to my success.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

There is no “right time” I always thought I had to be in my field for decades before I could start my own private practice. I thought that there had to be a “right time” and I had to have it all figured out before starting by business. If I waited until I had every aspect of the business perfected, I would have never started. I jumped out of my comfort zone and it paid off.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kidnection.co
• Instagram: kidnectionco
• Facebook: Kidnection, LLC

Image Credits
the social say – Ashley Rivera