It made him laugh

Liam Shephard, 11, was born with Pierre Robin sequence, which means he had a small jaw, short tongue and a full cleft palate.

His mother, Sue Shephard, tells his story:

"Liam had three repairs on his palate: his tongue and jaw caught up as he grew. He never talked, just grunted, so we had a teacher come in twice a week when he was about three years old, to teach him Makaton.

"When he was four years old, he started at a special school and they use Makaton a lot, so he picked up a lot of signs. And he can now speak a few words, though his vocabulary is very limited.

"I wanted him to join the scouts, so I went to see the scout leader to explained his situation, and that he uses Makaton. She said it wasn't a problem, and that she would arrange for the scout leaders to go on a course to learn Makaton, which I thought was brilliant.

"Liam started scouts recently, and he loved it. Especially when the scout leaders where able to communicate with him but the other Scouts didn't know what they was saying. It made him laugh. "

July 2007