About Thera-Play Pediatrics

I completed my Master’s in Communication Disorders (1999) from the University of Houston and my PhD in Rehabilitation (2009) from the University of Arkansas. My experience includes working with children and adults in a diverse array of medical and outpatient settings. In 2015 I had the opportunity to rejoin Thera-play. Prior to returning to Thera-play, I was a clinical assistant professor at the University of Arkansas for six years.I have a passion for understanding the relationships between social, cognitive, emotional and language development in children.

I approach therapy through engaging, joint cooperative activities (e.g., play, new learning and work) that promote the development of social interaction, attention, memory and self-regulation. This cognitive focus facilitates speech, language and social skills that can be easily transferred to settings outside of the clinic. I am passionate about exploring and developing hands-on activity-based approaches to addressing speech, language, and literacy-related issues with clients in a manner that fosters independence, self-efficacy, and healthy self-identity.

An activity consists in producing some tangible outcome following an apprenticeship model of learning. For example, building a wooden model (e.g., catapult); a rubber-band airplane; bookmaking, programming a computer game or computer art (via Scratch, Android App Inventor 2 and Processing programming language). Such activity-based approaches can provide a rich and motivating context for addressing a multitude of speech therapy objectives.

The purpose of specific therapy objectives become more readily apparent to clients in activities with tangible, understandable real-world goals. Clients acquire new knowledge, vocabulary, language structures and discourse practices. Literacy skills can be incorporated in ways that highlight their usefulness within a motivating activity. As a clinician and clinical educator, I have been working on distilling these ideas, developing materials (i.e., literacy related materials) and exploring means of sharing this approach via alternative platforms with a broader audience.

In my spare time I spend as much time as possible with my son, Zach and daughter Rye. I also enjoy martial arts, computer programming, bike riding, reading, and exercising.

I love coming to work every day and helping clients and their families reach new milestones. I see clients both at our outpatient clinic in Harrison, Arkansas and at a local school district. I have a passion for pediatric feeding disorders and have received training in Beckman Oral Motor along with certification as a Lactation Consultant. I have a desire to learn and research new treatment techniques to best serve each client’s individual needs. Children learn best through play, and I am incredibly thankful to have a career that combines laughter with learning.

My name is Makenna Sisson. I am from Hot Springs, Arkansas. I completed my undergraduate degree in communication disorders in 2020 and my master’s degree in speech-language pathology in 2021 at Arkansas State University. I am passionate about working with children and watching as they grow as communicators. Some of my areas of interest are child language development and autism spectrum disorder.

I am originally from the Kansas City Missouri area which is also where I met and married my beautiful wife in 2018. A year later, in 2019, I finished my Master’s degree in Occupational Therapy. After working for 3 years in Kansas, my family and I visited Arkansas. We fell in love with the beautiful nature and decided to make NWA our home. We have one little boy and are excited to welcome a little girl into our home in June 2022. We look forward to staying in the area for many years as we raise and grow our family.

Sarah Davis OTR, Harrison Clinic I graduated from the University of Central Arkansas with a bachelors in psychology and a minor in Spanish in 2014. I completed my Masters of Science in Occupational Therapy in 2017. My husband, Ben, and I have a two year-old son, Beau. We enjoy fishing, camping, and cooking together as a family. My favorite thing about working for Thera-play is getting to play a part in helping children and their families achieve their goals and watching children grow leaps and bounds.

I’ve been married to my wife since 2008 and have a mix of biological and adopted children 3 boys and 3 girls. I enjoy supporting foster care families and helping find resources to better serve children in NWA. I love the outdoors (fishing especially) and the ways it teaches us about life. Some days the outdoors is picturesque and beautiful, and sometimes it is rough and treacherous. In each scenario, I try to see it as a new opportunity for different experiences to be had. I try to learn/teach from both the beautiful and the treacherous situations in life. I love the connections I get to build with our patients and families when treating our patients. It has been a wonderful experience.

The fruits of consistent developmental care and attention improves it lends to our patients’ lives. I strive to build rapport with each patient and contour treatments to be not only effective but also enjoyable for the patient. Providing consistent structure and expectations in my treatments helps children know what is expected of them and how they can be successful. I am also certified as a Kinesio-taping Practitioner and enjoy helping patients through various taping methods.

I was inspired to pursue a career in physical therapy when I was 12 years old after having to have hip surgery. I had to learn how to walk all over again, and I had a physical therapist that specialized in pediatrics to help me recover. Since becoming a PTA, I have enjoyed getting to help children meet and exceed their developmental milestones/goals to better their quality of life, and in doing so, have helped the parents too.

I have been the administrative assistant for the Harrison clinic since June of 2020. I have been married since 2002 and have 3 children of my own. I enjoy spending time with my family and helping my husband with the youth ministry at our church. I have a background in early childhood education that makes me very passionate about our mission here at Thera-play. I handle scheduling and all other office
responsibilities for the Harrison clinic. I love to build relationships with the parents that come in the clinic and strive to provide a positive experience for all of our patients.