CHILDREN from the Vale were given the chance to practice their speech at a recent event.

Evie McConnan from Dinas Powys, Jack Hudson from Penarth and Tomas Lewis from Barry were all born with either a cleft lip and palate (CLP) or a palate that does not function well, and have been receiving speech therapy.

Without it they could develop speech errors that can become habitual and very difficult to change, requiring years of therapy to remediate.

Abertawe Bro Morgannwg university health board’s organises an annual outing to give the youngsters from across South Wales a chance to practise their speech in an everyday environment.

This year’s was the third trip and saw seven children and their parents make the journey to Margam Park for a day of fun activities.

ABMU hosts the Welsh Centre for Cleft Lip and Palate covering five South Wales health boards – ABMU itself, along with Hywel Dda, Cwm Taf, Aneurin Bevan and Cardiff and Vale.

Specialist speech and language therapist Lisa Farquhar said: “The whole idea is to get it out of a clinical setting. What we are trying to do is help children generalise speech sounds.

"They can do the sounds but don’t always use them. They come to clinic and do it fine but then they forget it and don’t use the sounds.

It’s about encouraging them to use their speech in more everyday activities.”

One activity saw parents wear fancy dress and take part in a catwalk-style parade while the children provided the commentary – with encouragement to use their sounds in a clear and correct way.

Lisa added: “One of our psychological assistants came along too and ran a discussion group with parents so they could talk about concerns and strategies that help them work with their children.

"At the end we bought all the children an ice-cream, which they had to ask for themselves – again encouraging them to use sounds correctly in an everyday setting.”