Kelly Hennings loves working with babies and children, but she knew she needed more space to run her business.
Hennings – a speech therapist and owner of Honey Pie Pediatric Therapy, currently sees her patients in a 400-square-foot room in the Center for Primary Care’s North Augusta location at 105 East Hugh St. But she’s moving to a new 1,800-square-foot office, located at 106A Martintown Road on the corner of Georgia Avenue and next door to University Home Health Services, about a mile away. Hennings looks forward to having “a waiting room and more space for activities,” when the office opens on Monday, Oct. 4, says the 2011 Valdosta State University graduate.
As a pediatric speech therapist, she primarily treats children between the ages of 2 and 12 who have been diagnosed with a variety of language and speech disorders, such as stuttering. Some are on the autism spectrum. “I also work with kids who have feeding disorders, like trouble chewing,” she explains. One of her favorite parts of her job is seeing how parents react to their children’s progress.
While COVID-19 destroyed many businesses last year, Hennings says it helped hers. “A lot of kids get speech therapy through the school system,” she states. When local schools closed due to the pandemic, many parents hired private speech therapists to treat their children. Prior to opening Honey Pie on Sept. 8, 2020, Hennings served as a speech therapist with the Columbia County School District for two years and worked at Ducktails Pediatric Therapy & Wellness.
In her new location, she will expand her services by hiring an occupational therapist and part-time speech therapists. “Right now, I’m a one-woman show,” which means in addition to providing therapy, she also answers the phone and schedules appointments, Hennings adds. She plans to hire people to perform these tasks.
Honey Pie will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, but Hennings hopes to add Friday and Saturday eventually. For more information, visit honeypietherapy.com or call 803-993-9959.