Efforts to help a Banbury area schoolboy to talk and be understood are now helping other children

Albie suffers from a neurological condition called Verbal Dyspraxia which affects the signals from the brain to the mouth and causes problems with forming sounds and words. It is a lifelong condition that requires a lot of intensive speech therapy and it can be years before speech is possible.

Albie's family, from Woodford Halse, have raised a total of £2,500 to buy the board and an iPad equipped with a speech app called ThinkSmartBox for the little boy's school, Culworth Primary. And because they raised much more than they needed, they have provided the special iPads for two other schools at Chipping Warden and Woodford Halse.

His Mum, Louisa Galloway said: "The board will allow him to communicate with his teachers and friends, showing them what he can't tell them. By pointing at pictures, he will be able to show how he is feeling, what he would like to play with or if he would like a snack or a drink.

"Albie is three now and he can't say any of these things. Even at home with the people who love him most, we still often had to guess what he wants. And sometimes he just gave up, because we don't always guess right. We can't even begin to imagine what that must be like for him. It is lucky he is such a happy and confident boy but he needs the opportunity to be heard and understood, especially at school.

"With the money we raised we bought three IPads and sets of the apps. The apps work in the same way as the boards with a layout called PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) so words of a certain type, for example, nouns or verbs, are always in the same position either on the board or on any of the app topics.

"The board is just for him to use if he needs it so the teachers still speak to him verbally, but it is prominently displayed in their outdoor area so very accessible for him.

"He has gained so much confidence and because of his regular therapy sessions he's now able to say simple sentences, use words to describe how he's feeling, share thoughts etc. It feels very lucky as his therapist has been so impressed with his progress and he's worked really hard. And it's nice to think the boards will be there for other early years children as he moves up through the school."

Ms Galloway said Albie had always been quiet but the family assumed he was a thinker, not a talker. He had never babbled as a baby and had limited ability to make sounds. Early this year, after he started pre-school Ms Galloway began to get very worried, seeing how frustrated Albie became when other children could not understand him.

He was diagnosed with verbal dyspraxia in January after his parents began to worry seriously about his lack of speech.

As well as buying the specialist equipment, the family also plans to make a donation to the Verbal Dyspraxia Foundation which provides information and support to families like Albie's.