A Fishguard speech therapist is hoping to get tongues wagging, as her first books for young children hit the shops.

Award-winning speech therapist Nicola Lathey is a former Ysgol Bro Gwaun pupil whose family still live in Fishguard.

She published her first book, Small Talk, in 2013 as a guide for parents to encourage and stimulate the natural stages of early language development for babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers.

Following the success of the parents' book Nicola has now published Small Talk Bedtime and Small Talk at the Park, alongside journalist Tracey Blake.

"The idea to write the books came to me in the middle of the night when I was sat up during a night feed," said Nicola.

"There's very little in between visually stimulating black and white books and books with long sentences. There's a real gap there and I wanted to try to fill that gap.

"I set out to write something, focusing on the baby's language development before 24 months. And now we have At the Park and Bedtime."

The books are specially designed to encourage a baby to use a sound, a word or a sign. Bold pictures are accompanied by catchy and repetitive text, so that the baby gets hooked in to the rhythm of the story and begins to join in in whichever way they can.

"I am extremely passionate about the early years of language development, especially the first 18 months of life," said Nicola. "Most people think that the fun only begins when a baby utters their first words but that couldn't be further from the truth."

The board books are published by Campbell Books and are available at Marks and Spencers as well as bookshops and on Amazon.

"I'm very proud and amazed to see the book stocked in M&S," said Nicola. "It's amazing I can't quite believe it."