Where Children Are
Known, Not Just Taught.

🏫 In a SEN School, a SaLT might ask:

Can this pupil understand classroom instructions? Can they access literacy tasks, narrative skills, and vocabulary development? Can they meet EHCP speech and language targets?

"Compare and contrast these two stories."  ·  "Write a paragraph explaining your answer."

The focus: helping the child access education.

🌿 At Reign, a SaLT asks:

Can this young person…

• ✅Express their needs and feelings?
• ✅Understand and navigate boundaries?
• ✅Regulate emotions in real situations?
• ✅Build and sustain friendships?
• ✅Cope independently in the community?
• ✅Attend and communicate at work experience?
• ✅Use public transport and navigate spaces safely?
• ✅Self-advocate and communicate with employers?

The focus: helping the young person access life.

For pre-verbal and early communicators. SALT at Roots is about building the foundations: safety in communication, trust in adults, and first expressions of need.

• 🗣️AAC device and symbol system introduction
• 📸Visual schedules and object cues
• 🌊Intensive interaction — meeting the child where they are
• 👋Makaton signing embedded throughout the day
• 💜Communicating distress and need safely
• 🤝Staff coaching on responsive communication

For emerging communicators building social, emotional, and relational language. Many Branches pupils are non speaking but communicate in many other ways, while developing the social and emotional dimensions of communication.

• 💬Relationship-building and social communication
• 🤲Conflict resolution and repair
• 💜Emotional expression and vocabulary
• 🧠Understanding social situations and unwritten rules
• 🌍Communication in community settings
• 🙋Self-advocacy — knowing your needs and voicing them

Communication for adulthood. Bloomers SALT focuses on the real-world, vocational, and employability contexts that will define our pupils' lives after Reign.

• ☕Café enterprise: greetings, orders, problem-solving
• 🌱Gardening project: instructions, team talk, questions
• 🍳Life skills kitchen: sequencing, safety communication
• 🚌Community: travel, ordering food, asking for help
• 💼Employer communication and interview skills
• 📞Telephone and digital communication skills

🏫 In a SEN School, play might mean:

Structured playtime to practise turn-taking, a social-skills group at lunch, or a reward activity once work is finished.

"Finish your task and then you can play."  ·  "Let's practise sharing in our group."

The focus: helping the child behave and access education.

🌿 At Reign, our Play Therapist asks:

• ✅What is this child trying to tell me through their play?
• ✅Does this child feel safe enough to explore and take risks?
• ✅What experiences are they processing and making sense of?
• ✅Can they express difficult feelings without words?
• ✅Are they building a trusting relationship with a key adult?
• ✅How is their inner world changing over time?
• ✅What does this child need from me, right now, to feel held?
• ✅Is play helping them move from surviving to thriving?

For our earliest communicators. Play at Roots builds the felt sense of safety and the first trusting bond with an adult — the foundation for everything else.

• 🧸Non-directive, child-led play in a safe space
• 🌊Sensory and messy play for regulation
• 🤝Building attunement and trust with a key adult
• 🎵Music, movement, and rhythm-based play
• 💜Communicating feelings safely through play
• 🪆Symbolic play to process early experiences

For children building relationships and emotional language. Play at Branches helps young people process experiences, express feelings, and rehearse the social world safely.

• 🎭Role-play and small-world play
• 🎨Creative and art-based therapeutic play
• 📖Story and narrative play to make sense of events
• 🤲Working through conflict and friendship
• 💬Putting feelings into words and actions
• 🧩Building problem-solving and resilience

For young people preparing for adulthood. Play and creative therapy at Bloomers supports identity, confidence, and processing the transition towards independence.

• 🎬Drama, film, and expressive arts
• 🪞Exploring identity and self-understanding
• 🌱Processing change and transition
• 🤝Building confidence for the wider world
• 💛Sustaining wellbeing and self-esteem
• 🎯Creative goal-setting in their own words

🏫 In a SEN School, an OT might ask:

Can this pupil grip a pencil, sit still at their desk, manage their tray and coat, and cope with the sensory demands of the classroom well enough to learn?

"Let's work on handwriting and sitting at the table."  ·  "Use this wobble cushion in class."

The focus: helping the child function in the classroom.

🌿 At Reign, our OT asks:

• ✅Is this young person’s sensory system regulated and safe?
• ✅Can they care for themselves — washing, dressing, eating?
• ✅Can they prepare food and manage a kitchen safely?
• ✅Can they cope with the sensory world of the community?
• ✅Do they have the tools and environment they need to regulate?
• ✅Can they travel, shop, and navigate everyday spaces?
• ✅What gets in the way of them doing what they want to do?
• ✅How do we build independence for adulthood, step by step?

For our earliest-stage learners. OT at Roots is about a regulated sensory system and a felt sense of safety — the foundation a child needs before anything else can grow.

• 🌀Individual sensory diets and profiles
• 🧩Sensory integration through play
• 🛋️Calm, regulating sensory environments
• ✋Early self-care and daily routines
• 🌊Co-regulation and sensory soothing
• 🤝Coaching staff on each child’s sensory needs

For children growing in confidence. OT at Branches builds the practical, everyday independence that opens up relationships, learning, and the community.

• 🍽️Self-care, dressing, and eating skills
• ✍️Functional motor skills for real tasks
• 🧺Everyday living skills and routines
• 🌍Managing the sensory demands of community
• 🎒Organisation and sequencing skills
• 💪Building tolerance, stamina, and confidence

For young people preparing for adulthood. OT at Bloomers focuses on the functional independence and life skills that will define their lives beyond Reign.

• 🍳Cooking and kitchen independence
• 🛒Shopping, money, and community skills
• 🚌Travel training and navigating spaces
• 🧼Independent personal care and health
• 🏠Skills for independent and supported living
• 💼Regulation and stamina for work and college