Laura Tydd Speech and Language Therapy

11/12/2025

Feeling very grateful to have received a few lovely Christmas cards this week, with two children writing me their own message - I absolutely love my job 😊

22/09/2025

September brings us two children who have progressed so well that they no longer need me - always sad to stop seeing the families I work with but happy to see such fab progress. The parents of J left me the following feedback;

"Hi Laura

I am so grateful for all the work you have done with J.
I am also so proud of how well he has come on.

J has loved all his sessions with you and I think you do a fantastic job. I would highly recommend you to anyone looking at using a speech and language therapist.

J and I will miss you."

06/09/2023

And just like that the summer holidays are over! Now a day of prepping and enjoying my lovely new coffee mug ready for going out and about this half term on my lovely visits 😊

21/06/2023

There is so much research out there supporting that signing (whether a formal signing system or informal gestures that you and/or your child have made up) supports spoken language - and until that happens gives them another way of communicating their wants and needs 😊

Myth #2: Makaton stops people from talking. Makaton is designed to support and encourage speech! By using signs and symbols, it helps individuals to communicate effectively, often leading to the development of speech. Want to learn more? Try our FREE 7 day membership trial bit.ly/3YmScdk

18/04/2023

Newborn babies brains grow to full size faster than any other part of the body, using about 50% of their energy intake 😲🧠 (an adult's brain uses 25% of their energy!)⁣
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Whilst their brains are growing in those first few months, the basic understanding of language is growing too 🥰⁣
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Babies have the ability to hear the sounds of different languages and tune into the ones they hear most 👏⁣
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So it's a no brainer (pardon the pun) that the more you talk to them, the more they begin to understand how language works 🙌⁣

16/03/2023

This week has seen me reassess a child who has made fantastic progress with only a few therapy sessions and is now ready for a break from therapy due to how well he's doing. He nicknamed me Mary Poppins due to the bag of toys and activities I carry around with me 😀.

After letting parents know how well he has done, they gave me the following lovely feedback;

"Thank you so much for sharing the assessments. It’s incredible to compare them side by side! The progress he made with you is amazing.

It has been such a pleasure working with you and we are so grateful for all of the effort you’ve put into working with him. K always looks forward to school when Mary Poppins will be in!"

07/02/2023

This weekend marked a full year of starting this new adventure, and so we celebrated in the best way - coffee, cake and a beach sunset!

(And I finally got around to ordering some business cards!).

13/12/2022

Last night I ran a twilight training session for TAs and school staff on speech sound difficulties. It was fantastic training up people to know how to assess, identify and treat speech sound difficulties in young children!

I'll be working with the group after Christmas so I can directly model how to help children with speech sound issues and to ensure school staff feel empowered and able to help students 😄. If you feel your school/setting would find this helpful and you'd like more information , please get in touch.

21/11/2022

I had the following lovely feedback from a family over the weekend after completing an assessment and just a few therapy sessions....

"Just emailing to say that everyone has noticed a big different in ******'s speech and overall talking confidence since doing sessions with you!"

This shows just how well early identification and intervention can work for children - sessions don't need to be weekly, they can be tailored to your child and family. Practice at home is always the most important thing and I ensure families know just how to help their child on their communication journey.

19/11/2022

I've recently completed my Level 2 Makaton training which has been absolutely amazing, and reinforced how useful signing is for all children. All the research supports that signing helps children to learn the spoken words, and helps to reduce frustration at not being able to communicate until they are using words.

The Makaton website is a great place to start looking for signs and information https://makaton.org

07/11/2022

Another lovely session with a school for a child today, and a chance to use my new jumping frogs game! This went down very well - the child practiced their new sound with the chance to jump a frog into the bucket after each word! By including a game within therapy tasks, you make it more fun and rewarding for children 😄.

08/10/2022

Children who have unclear speech very often miss out syllables (parts of the word), which can result in them being harder to understand. Some common examples is "nana" for banana, or "tato" for potato.
Adults around your child can help by showing their child how to clap out the number of syllables in a word - it doesn't matter if they use the correct sounds initially when you start doing this. You can hunt for words to clap out in the garden, family and friends names etc. Make it fun and remember to praise your child for having a go and clap out the syllables together if they find it tricky.