Nicola Lathey is a speech and language therapist, and founder of the Owl Centre, a private clinic for children in the UK. Nicola is a member of the Association of Speech and Language Therapists in Independent Practice, the Royal Collage of Speech and Language Therapists and the Health Professional Council. She is the author of Small Talk and lives with her family in Oxford. Tracey Blake is an experienced journalist and editor. Since 2005, Tracey has worked for the Daily Mail, and she lives with her family in Buckinghamshire. She has co-authored Small Talk: Simple ways to boost your child's speech and language development from birth with Nicola Lathey. Ailie studied Illustration Design at East Anglia University, Cambridge, travelled around the world for a year, then moved to London and became a freelance children's book illustrator. She relocated to Newcastle where she has lived for the past 10 years. She is currently experimenting with colour more and introducing collage. She uses a lot of mixed media, including acrylics, coloured pens and pencils.