By The Bay Speech and Language Therapy IOW

02/04/2026

♾️ WORLD AUTISM DAY ♾️

I became a speech and language therapist before I became a mum, but I often reflect on how my life decisions have prepared me to understand and care for these two unique little humans I’ve been blessed with. I’m not sure whether it’s a coincidence or not. But I feel so lucky to advocate for my own and other people’s children every day.

world autism day • autism awareness • autism acceptance month • autistic • ASC • neurodivergent parenting • speech and language therapy • speech therapist • SLCN • Isle of Wight • small business

24/03/2026

Celebrating the progress made by this little girl who I have been working with for a while now 🎉

When I met her, she presented with a very significant language disorder and really struggled to get her message across, make her wants and needs known and join in socially.

Fast forward to today, she is a confident and sociable little girl who seems so much happier in herself! 🎊 Although she still sometimes finds it difficult to ‘find’ the words she wants to use, you can see how much more clearly she is able to communicate.

We’re now moving on to working on higher level language skills such as inferencing and deduction, and understanding non-literal language 💬

language disorder • SLCN • autism • ASC • autistic • speech and language • speech therapy • speech and language therapist • language development • Isle of Wight • small business

03/03/2026

🧱 BUILDING SENTENCES 🧱

Using colourful semantics, paired with visuals to support choosing the correct auxiliary verb (is/are) and pronouns (his/her/their), as well as remembering to use determiners (the, a/an), over 7 sessions so far, I’ve seen this 8 year old’s spoken sentences go from this:

“She reading book”
“Boys eating sandwiches”

To this:

✨ “The woman is reading a book” ✨
✨“The boys are eating sandwiches” ✨

colourful semantics • expressive language • language disorder • DLD • autism • speech and language • speech therapy • speech therapist • Isle of Wight • small business

21/02/2026

🗣️ EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE MILESTONES 🗣️

Save for reference 👇

✨ I’d suggest considering developmental milestones with caution - children develop at different rates and, as with all areas of development, there will always be children at the faster and slower ends of the bell curve. However, I’ve seen a lot of parents posting on community social media groups recently asking whether they should be concerned about their toddler’s communication skills, and it’s sometimes helpful for parents to know what is ‘typical’ so that they are aware of when it might be the right time to seek a professional opinion. ✨

Average = half (50%) of children of that age have at least that many words.

Milestone = the majority (90%) of children of that age have at least that many words.

❔What is a word? ❔ Any group of sounds used consistently by the child to convey a specific meaning, including vehicle and animal noises and exclamations (e.g. yay, wow).

Early intervention for delayed communication skills is important. If you’re concerned about your child’s expressive language skills, seek the opinion of a qualified speech and language therapist 💬

developmental norms • speech and language • speech therapy • speech and language therapist • language development • Isle of Wight • small business

15/02/2026

08/02/2026

If only I could draw animals that well! ✍️

speech therapy • speech and language therapist • caricature • Isle of Wight • small business • By The Bay

06/02/2026

🧩 One activity, multiple goals! 🧩

With this activity with an 11 year old this week, we worked on:

✨ Making predictions and formulating solutions (inferencing)
✨ The simple irregular past tense (‘The bird flew. The bird sat.’)
✨ The continuous past tense, choosing the correct auxiliary verb (‘The bird was flying vs. The birds were flying.’)
✨ Emotions vocabulary and emotional inferencing (The bird finished building the nest and felt… exhausted and proud.)

speech therapy • speech and language • speech therapist • activity ideas • inferencing • expressive language • emotions vocabulary • regulation • Isle of Wight • small business

28/01/2026

We know the SEND journey isn’t easy — the endless emails, waiting lists, and feeling like no one’s listening. We’ve been there too.

That’s why SEND Empowerment was created: a free, independent advocacy service run by people who truly understand and believe that SEND support should be accessible to everyone. We’ll help you write letters, challenge delays, attend meetings, and make sure your child’s needs aren’t ignored.

💜 Empowering parents. Supporting children. Changing outcomes.
📧Contact us: info@send-empowerment.co.uk
👉 Visit www.send-empowerment.co.uk
to see how we can help.

27/01/2026

Building Sequencing and Narrative Skills 🧱

In this session we were working on sequencing and using time conjunctions to retell, using the First, Next, Last resource from , supported by visuals. Visuals help make abstract language more concrete, supporting children with language difficulties to understand and learn new concepts.

🔢 Understanding time conjunctions like ‘first’, ‘next’ and ‘last’ supports so many functional skills. It helps children follow instructions, retell what has happened, organise their ideas for talking and writing, and make sense of daily routines. These early sequencing skills are also an important foundation for narrative, comprehension and independent learning.

sequencing skills · time conjunctions · visual supports · receptive language · expressive language · following instructions · narrative · functional communication · speech therapy · speech and language · Isle of Wight

12/01/2026