After receiving her bachelor’s degree in communication disorders from the University of Kentucky (1996) and her master’s degree in speech-language pathology at Miami University (1997), Kristin began her career as a speech-language pathologist in Nashville in 1998. For more than 20 years, Kristin has been providing therapy to children in pediatric rehabilitation settings, schools, and private practice settings. Kristin has focused her career on understanding and treating the pragmatic-social language abilities of children with autism spectrum disorder, ADD/ADHD, and various other social-emotional disorders. She has vast experience in facilitating the articulation abilities of children with childhood apraxia of speech, phonological disorders, and developmental speech delays. Throughout her career, Kristin has addressed the receptive and expressive language abilities of children from two years of age through upper elementary. She has been fortunate to collaborate with many occupational therapists who have increased her understanding of the significant impact that sensory integration therapy has on facilitating the child’s language, speech, and social behaviors.

In addition to providing individual speech-language therapy to children, Kristin also has expertise in facilitating children’s pragmatic-social language skills through individual and group therapy. She has vast experience in assessing and treating pragmatic-social language disorders in preschool through elementary-aged children. She has developed and implemented many social programs that facilitate children’s social understanding, behaviors, and skills with peers. Kristin has had particular success in this regard with children with ADD/ADHD, anxiety disorder, selective mutism, autism spectrum disorder, sensory processing disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Over the past 5-years, Kristin has focused her expanding her understanding of how anxiety affects children’s communication and social abilities. She obtained a certification in Rewiring the Anxious Brain: Applied Neuroscience for Treating Anxiety, Panic, and Worry and she continues to focus on expanding her professional knowledge and experience in treating the communication and social struggles related to anxiety and the anxious brain. Kristin works directly with parents, teachers, and educational teams in understanding how anxiety is inhibiting the child’s social and academic development. She works alongside the child’s “team” to build the child’s confidence and comfort in communicating within their home, school, and community and expanding the individuals with whom they verbally communicate. Kristin believes that optimal progress is obtained through close collaboration with the child’s parents and educational teams, and when therapy occurs in the child’s natural environments with their everyday communication partners. In addition to providing individual therapy, Kristin works to build the child’s confidence and comfort in the community through groups and various community outings. Through the implementation of various treatment strategies, Kristin has been successful in assisting children with communication behaviors that are often characteristic of children with selective mutism to overcome their anxiety related to communication. Kristin is excited to serve as one of Tennessee’s Selective Mutism Association State Coordinators and serve alongside the SMA team to increase public awareness of selective mutism and related childhood anxiety disorders. As so many parents have experienced, the families that contact Kristin are frustrated and know their child needs help. Yet, they have struggled to find the appropriate medical, emotional, therapeutic, and educational support to assist them in addressing their child’s communication challenges. As an SMA State Coordinator, it is Kristin’s goal to increase the awareness of selective mutism within the medical and educational systems of Tennessee and assist families in meeting their child’s therapeutic needs. Through increased public awareness, it is Kristin’s goal that our community can decrease the time-lapse that often occurs between onset of symptoms, obtaining a correct diagnosis, and beginning the effective therapeutic intervention.

Throughout Kristin’s career, she has served as a presenter and trainer to various organizations. She works with various educational institutes to train their educational teams on understanding children’s language and social behaviors and training teams on facilitating student’s social skills in the classroom. Kristin served as a regional trainer of the TRIAD Teacher Training/DOE Regional Autism Training Project. She holds her certification in PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) and in Interactive Metronome treatment.

Kristin finds it a blessing to “walk the journey” with the families who trust her to meet the therapeutic needs of their children. She strives to encourage, love, and support parents through the time they allow her to share in their child’s life. She, too, is blessed to experience the “adventures of parenthood” with her husband, as they parent their four children.

Kristin Seiler Davis, MS, CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist
TN License No SP 2169
Tennessee
kristin@wordofmouthca.com