FAQS
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Speech & Language Questions
All you need to know about how we support schools with speech, language and communication.
Communication skills are related to the way we listen and understand, the way we use speech and language to send a message and the way we make and maintain friendships with other children. Some children can find communication challenging and Mable speech and language therapists can help. We provide assessment and therapy to children with communication needs. We also offer expert advice to teaching staff to help them support students across all areas of the curriculum.
If you have concerns about a student's speech clarity, their ability to learn new words at the same rate as other children or their social interaction skills, then they may need support. Book the student in for an assessment, and once consent is signed, they'll be fully assessed by a Speech and Language Therapist. For more guidance, give us a call and one of our team will be happy to talk it through.
Mable therapists are able to provide intervention for a variety of presenting issues. For example, Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Hearing Impairment (HI), social communication needs, communication difficulties associated with mental health, speech sound delay and disorder and literacy difficulties. If you're not sure, the best thing to do is call and speak to one of our therapists. Unfortunately, we're unable to deliver direct intervention with children who have a profound visual impairment or those with profound and multiple learning needs.
Yes, within our network we have experienced therapists working with all age groups. Specialist skills are necessary to engage and support this age group which is why we only hire experienced therapists who have an excellent understanding of teenagers and the secondary curriculum.
You’ll start by completing a brief referral form. This is so we can ensure the student is matched with the best therapist for their needs. You will then be able to book in the assessment for a time that best suits the student’s schedule. The assessment session is usually 45-50 minutes long and will assess the student across a variety of areas, based on what the concerns are. You’ll then receive a full report within seven days.
Usually we recommend an assessment as the therapist needs to get a baseline of the student's needs. The assessment can also be useful as it provides strategies to support the student in class. In some cases, we don’t need a full assessment, for example if the student has one from within the last six months which the therapist feels contains enough information. There are also some instances where the only concern is a mild speech production difficulty, so a full assessment isn’t required.
Mable online assessments are Dynamic. Dynamic assessment (DA) is a method of conducting a language assessment which seeks to identify the skills that an individual child possesses as well as their learning potential. The DA procedure emphasises the learning process and accounts for the amount of support and structure of the therapist.
Yes, the Mable Speech and Language screener investigates all areas of speech and language development. Specialist subsets can be administered for children and young people with specific needs and the results of these can be reported for use in EHCP assessment.
Following an assessment, we will send you a draft provision map with an estimate of sessions required in order to meet initial targets. However, until we know more about your student’ difficulties; their learning style and their speed of progression it is difficult to say how many sessions they will require in order to reach their full potential. Good communication between parents, school and other practitioners as well as regular assessment will allow your therapist to give you a good idea of prognosis.
You can contact the therapist directly through the Mable platform. You’ll be kept up to date with information about all your students including activities for the student to do between sessions.
All our therapists are registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT). We only hire therapists of NHS Band 6 and above, so they have all had several years of experience before starting to work with Mable.
If a student has a change in circumstances, such as a timetable clash, it's very simple to change therapist. You can do this yourself via the Mable dashboard or contact your school account manager and we can organise a new therapist.
No, if you have concerns about the communication of one of your students you can start Mable straight away. You must gain parental consent before discussing specific details about a student with us but you're welcome to give us a call and talk to a therapist straight away about the needs in your school. We are also very happy to work alongside NHS practitioners as required.
At Mable we believe the impact of assessment, intervention and training should have a measurable effect on a student’s wellbeing, their access to the curriculum and most importantly their functional communication. Mable’s detailed reporting function enables schools to track cost against actual student outcomes. Mable provides weekly data to not only demonstrate impact but to assist in measuring the direct impact of the intervention against student functioning in the classroom. Mable gathers student opinion through self-evaluation at the start and end of every speech and language intervention session and can support schools who want to develop case studies in order to illustrate how speech and language therapy support has an impact on engagement and behaviour.
It's really simple, you login to your Mable account and press 'add patient'. You'll be asked a few simple questions and you'll need to email a consent form to the student's parents/carers. Once the consent is completed, you can book them in.
A member of 'supervising' staff will need to be available for the session. They'll help get the student logged in and once the session has connected they will leave them to access the session privately. They will need to be contactable for the duration of the session in case the counsellor needs to call them with any technical issues or if they feel an adult is needed in the room. It makes sense for this person to be someone non-class-based, so a member of SLT or the admin team.
All of our counsellors are fully qualified and registered with the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS) or Association of Children's Psychotherapists (ACP). They have up-to-date, enhanced DBS checks as well as regular safeguarding and GDPR training. We have a robust recruitment policy and recruit counsellors based on their qualifications, experience and personality. All of our counsellors have significant experience of working with children.
Each online counselling session lasts 45 minutes. The appointments usually take place at the same time each week unless agreed otherwise with the counsellor. We recommend that when you book the first session, you choose a day and time that you’ll be able to stick to regularly.
Some schools arrange for the sessions to take place at home, if they feel the parents will be able to accommodate this. If you would like to arrange this, just ensure the student knows their log in details.
Safeguarding children and young people is the highest priority to us at Mable Therapy. We're trained in safer recruiting practices to ensure that all our counsellors are committed to the wellbeing of their clients, which includes being fully qualified, DBS checked (enhanced), insured and BACP or ACP registered.
We have a Safeguarding Manager who will meet regularly with your DSL to discuss how things are going. Our Safeguarding Manager supports our therapists with all disclosures made and therapists also attend monthly supervision with a clinical supervisor where they discuss their caseload. Should our counsellors have any concerns they will make immediate contact with the designated safeguarding lead in your school and follow your policy.
It can be tempting to try to persuade students to access counselling if we can see that it would be beneficial. However, counselling will only help if they are willing and engaged. It can help to tell the student that it's only one session to start with and then they can then decide whether they’d like to continue. You may also want to show them one of these videos which explains more about how Mable Therapy works:
This video is suitable for primary age students
This video is usually suitable for secondary age students
If a student has their first session and does not want to continue it’s important to respect their decision. It’s essential that they has a positive experience or counselling so they feel empowered to access it in the future. By giving them the power to decide, they know they are able to access it once they feel ready.
We do require parents or carers to give consent before counselling starts. Digital consent forms can be emailed or you can upload a porinted consent form. Students are able to self-consent from the age of 16. If you need to discuss the needs of a specific student, give us a call and we'll be happy to help.
Many students are on a CAMHS waiting list and we are very happy to support them while they wait. We are not able to offer counselling simultaneously if a student is seeing another counsellor, but we can support them as they are waiting to access counselling from another service.
Each student is different, but we usually recommend a block of 10 as enough sessions to do a meaningful piece of therapeutic work. We understand that budgets are tight and some schools will ask for blocks of 8 which we're happy to accommodate. We discourage anything less than 8 as we do not think it is enough time to build a relationship with the student and help them to work on their difficulties.
The Mable Early Years Language and Communication Screener is easy to administer in group settings. Simply set up groups of 6-8 children with iPads or laptops and headphones. A member of staff logs each child into the screener, and from there, they can complete it independently. Our animated character guides the children through a series of questions designed to screen their speech and language skills. The process is child-friendly and doesn’t require adult intervention during the session, so the supervising staff member can oversee the group while the children work through the screener at their own pace.
The screener is aimed at identifying and assessing the speech, language and communication needs for children in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). It may be used with the younger children in Year 1 however we cannot guarantee that it will identify every single pupil as the expectations and bench marks for KS1 students will be higher. If you have children in KS1 and you know that they are working at an age below where they are expected developmentally, this is an indicator that they may benefit from a thorough speech and language assessment.
Screeners are included in our subscription packages, so it's much more cost effective to access them this way, as it means you also get therapy sessions and other resources for your school. However, screeners can be bought separately to our subscription packages.
The Mable universal resources focus on eight key early communication strategies that all EYFS staff should use when interacting with children to enhance speech, language and communication skills. The resources are a mix of videos, handouts and posters which demonstrate and explain the strategies in detail whilst providing specific examples of how you can implement these in your everyday interactions. The universal resources are designed to be educational tools that support staff in fostering a language-rich environment and enhance their ability to support children’s communication skills effectively. The universal speech and language resources will enhance communication, learning, and inclusivity across the classroom setting.
At the targeted level, Mable Therapy has developed group interventions which follow an 8 week plan. Each week has a different theme but the core values remain consistent throughout. At Mable, our ethos is that we want all children to enjoy learning language, even if it is something that they might find difficult. Each week staff will be provided with an session plan guide which details the theme of the session, suggested activities, resources and vocabulary to cover. There are also interactive videos for staff each week so that staff can observe how the early communication strategies are used in a group setting, along with handouts about the rationale.
The Mable Academy offers a CPD library designed to equip your staff with the skills to identify and support mental health and SEND in your school. Each video course lasts about an hour, split into 5-8 minute modules, allowing staff to learn at their own pace. Courses cover a variety of topics, including Counselling Skills for Teachers and The Link Between Behaviour and Communication.
Once your school is registered, the entire staff has access to the Mable Academy, you simply send them an invitation to join the platform and they'll have their own log in. Our platform tracks their progress, so you can easily see which courses staff have completed and how much CPD they’ve accrued.
We created the screener for KS3 and above pupils, however, most pupils in upper KS2 should be able to complete the screener too.
Our 'Mable Life Skills: Wellbeing and Resilience; lessons, are designed to be delivered in PSHE lessons, form time or can even be adapted for assemblies. They include teaching guides, lesson slides and resources, so there's very little planning and preparation required.
Our 'Steps to Wellbeing' programme is a series of 7 self-help video modules that the student accesses independently. Email them a link via the Mable dashboard and they can work their way through the clinician-led programme of work.
To get started with Mable you will need a desktop computer or laptop with a camera and a microphone. You will also need at least 5 Meg broadband connection. With subscription packages you will receive a Mable box which contains 2 professional headsets with a built in microphone.
You can take the Mable tech test to check everything is working OK. Computers on school networks will need to unblock the Mable URLs, however the tech team at Mable can help with this.
Mable sessions take place using our unique video platform. It’s a bit like a Zoom session, but better! Our software has in-built games, activities and resources to make the counselling an immersive, creative, child-centred experience.
Yes, we take security very seriously and our tech team carry out exhaustive measures to ensure school data is kept safe. We ensure we are compliant with all necessary policies, including GDPR.