ABLE UK

ABLE UK ABLE UK (Advanced Behavioural Learning Environment) is a special needs service provider located in Dubai Healthcare City.
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31/12/2025

During a speech assessment, we don’t just listen to how a child speaks - we also carefully assess oral structure, movement, and sensory awareness. This includes checking for lip ties and tongue ties, as restrictions in these areas can affect speech clarity, feeding, swallowing, oral posture, and saliva control.

Tools such as mouth swabs and the Z-Vibe help us gently explore how the lips, tongue, cheeks, and jaw move and respond to sensory input. These allow our therapists to assess oral motor strength, coordination, range of movement, and sensory responses, all of which play a crucial role in functional communication.

For some children, reduced awareness or sensitivity inside the mouth can directly impact articulation and sound production. By looking beyond words and assessing the whole oral mechanism, we can better understand why a child may be struggling - and tailor therapy to meet their exact needs 💙

30/12/2025

Children with ADHD often struggle with internal timing, impulse control, and regulating their speed of movement and thought. Research shows differences in how the brain processes rhythm, sequencing, and timing, particularly involving the cerebellum and frontal networks.

⏱️ How the Metronome Helps
A metronome provides an external rhythm that the brain can latch onto. This helps children with ADHD to:
🔹slow down impulsive movements
🔹improve inhibitory control (waiting, stopping, starting)
🔹organise actions in the correct sequence
🔹maintain sustained attention for longer periods

🖐️ Motor + Attention Together
When a child moves or completes tasks in time with a beat, they’re practising self-regulation, motor planning, and focusat the same time - skills that are often challenging in ADHD.

📚 What This Supports Day-to-Day
Over time, this can positively impact:
🔹classroom focus
🔹handwriting rhythm and fluency
🔹reading pace
🔹sports and coordination
🔹emotional regulation

In OT, we don’t use metronomes as a one-size-fits-all tool; but for children with ADHD, they can be a powerful way to help the nervous system organise, regulate, and stay engaged.

30/12/2025

✨ Mouth breathing isn’t always obvious - but there are common signs parents can look out for. ✨

A child who breathes through their mouth may have parched or dry lips, frequent nasal congestion, an open mouth at rest, changes in lip colour, or a large, low-resting tongue.
Over time, this can also affect facial development, leading to a longer facial appearance, forward head posture, dark circles under the eyes, and sagging cheeks.

At night, parents may notice snoring or wheezing during sleep - all important red flags.

When these signs are present, we recommend an assessment with an ENT, alongside starting a myofunctional therapy protocol to retrain healthy breathing, tongue posture, and oral muscle function.

At ABLE UK, we offer Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy! DM US TO BOOK.

29/12/2025

This activity is challenging multiple systems at once!

From a motor control and neuroscience perspective, this task requires the brain to coordinate distal mobility (hands and feet) on top of proximal stability (core and pelvis). The core must activate continuously to keep the trunk stable while the arms generate force and the feet adjust position - this is known as anticipatory postural control, a key foundation for skilled movement.

The activity also heavily engages the proprioceptive system, especially through the feet. Using the feet to move the bucket improves lower-limb body awareness and strengthens the brain’s internal map of where the body is in space. At the same time, throwing the ball demands graded force, timing, and trajectory prediction, activating cerebellar pathways responsible for coordination and error correction.

Cognitively, this task requires dual-tasking, motor planning, and real-time adaptation; the brain must predict outcomes, adjust strategy, and self-correct on the fly. These are the same executive and motor skills needed for sports, dynamic classroom tasks, and independent daily living.

In OT, we choose activities like this because they don’t train one skill in isolation - they integrate core strength, sensory processing, motor planning, and executive function into a single meaningful challenge. That’s where real-world progress happens!

28/12/2025

Speech and feeding are closely connected because they use the same articulators - the lips, tongue, jaw, cheeks, and palate. The movements a child learns for sucking, chewing, and swallowing lay the foundation for later speech sound production.

That’s why you’ll often notice that when a child is developmentally ready for baby foods, they also begin babbling.

As oral skills mature through feeding, the brain starts using those same muscles and movement patterns for communication.

This is why supporting feeding skills early can have a positive impact on speech development - it’s all part of the same system working together! 💙

25/12/2025

We’ve been learning all about adjectives the words. that help us describe!
Conversation activities like shown in video provides a range of benefits, including improved communication skills, increased confidence, and a stronger grasp of language. These types of activities help children develop social skills by learning to express thoughts, actively listen, and build relationships.

Engaging in conversations also enhances cognitive development by improving vocabulary, sentence structure, and mental agility.
Let’s talk all things adjectives and increase speech intelligibility!

23/12/2025

Stimming helps children, particularly those with autism or sensory processing differences, manage sensory input, cope with stress, or express emotions, especially during potentially overwhelming or intense activities like therapeutic stretches.
The Beckman protocol itself often incorporates sensory elements to promote nervous system regulation, and a certified therapist would consider vocal stimming within this context. Recognizing and accepting the behavior as a valid form of self-expression and regulation, rather than an immediate behavior to suppress, is important for a supportive therapeutic environment. Giving a favourite toy - doll in our case here is very helpful for the child to allow the intervention.
Our little kiddo here is using the vocalizations as a coping mechanism to manage the intense sensory input or physical sensations associated with the oral motor stretches.

Address

2nd Floor, Building 33, Dubai Healthcare City
Dubai

Opening Hours

Monday 08:00 - 19:00
Tuesday 08:00 - 19:00
Wednesday 08:00 - 19:00
Thursday 08:00 - 19:00
Saturday 08:00 - 18:00
Sunday 08:00 - 19:00

Telephone

+97145520351

Website

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