Founder of ‘life-changing’ SEN communication tags grows business from spare bedroom to premises of its own
The founder of what have been described as “life-changing” communication tags for the SEN community has impressively grown the business beyond the spare bedroom in her home.
Sophie Haynes launched SEN Talk Tags in March last year, which was inspired by her five-year-old son’s autism diagnosis and aimed to help him express his needs and emotions.
What started as a personal project quickly grew into providing durable, 3D-printed communication tools for non-verbal and neurodivergent individuals.
Unlike laminated alternatives, these tags are waterproof, wipe clean and built to last, meaning families and teachers no longer have to replace them regularly.
Sophie is proud to have designed products with real life in mind, which are ready for “sticky hands, unexpected spills and everyday adventures”.
It was in February 2025 when Sophie first began making the tags for her five-year-old and by the next month, SEN Talk Tags had been established to meet the demand among local families and people further afield.
The base set of emotions come as black or white square tags, with a keyring to attach them to a bag or lanyard. These include happy, sad, excited, worried and overwhelmed.
Sophie also does sets for needs and routines, including eat, drink, stop, go, help, please, thank you, home, car and hungry. The toilet set is among her most popular, as it has been praised for helping families with toilet training.
The awareness tags let others know if a child is non-verbal, autistic or has another condition. Sophie explained that these tags help people to understand and it minimises judgement and discrimination in public.
The tags can be personalised to suit the needs of different families and the range of emotions covered continues to grow on a daily basis.
“Last year was a whirlwind,” Sophie told the Chronicle & Echo. “I didn’t expect it to take off as well as it has. I honestly thought I’d help a few families like ours and that would be it.
“It accelerated quite rapidly at the end of last year. Knowing there was the demand and we were making something that was helping, we wondered how we could help more people.”
Sophie admits there are “a lot of hidden things that go on behind the scenes” that she did not realise were part of running a business, which has been a big learning curve.
SEN Talk Tags has continued to expand its range of awareness tags, with different wordings to make the products accessible to as many people as possible. These awareness tags encourage kindness and understanding in public, and can be attached to backpacks and lanyards.
“It’s a non-verbal way of saying they might need a bit more time and space, without having to talk about what’s going on,” Sophie explained.
“Feedback has been amazing. There are families whose children haven’t responded to visual communication before and now they do because of the tactile nature of our products. Families are saying they are gamechangers.”
Sophie proudly shared that SEN Talk Tags is now featured in five Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) for children in schools. This assists young people with significant special educational needs or disabilities that require more than ordinary SEN support.
When asked what she believes makes SEN Talk Tags unique and special, Sophie said: “It’s come from the heart and lived experience. It’s pure passion and something I came up with to help my son, and it’s now supporting so many others. That’s one of the most rewarding things.”
Looking to the future of SEN Talk Tags, Sophie is thrilled to be moving the business out of her spare bedroom and into a premises of its own. It will be fitted out with a fleet of printers, to meet the demand of “some really exciting contracts and big work coming in the next 12 months”.
The business continues to expand, with Sophie’s husband Tom Haynes now on board as co-director of SEN Talk Tags, and they look forward to embarking on a new journey together.