Shona Robison, MSP, was a keynote speaker at BSA Scotland's first Open Day, in Aberdeen.

82 people came to our Aberdeen Open Day on 23rd April, 2005 - 31 people who stammer, 21 SLTs, 12 parents, and 18 'others', eg teacher, academic, partner, friend, helper, MSP!

The programme included a speech by Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, who unexpectedly revealed that she had stammered as a child. She is the SNP spokesperson on Health and an extremely active and effective MSP in the Scottish Parliament. She spoke very highly of our organisation - praising our promotional leaflet as 'one of the best I've seen in a long time'; confessing that our newsletter, blether, made her chuckle!; and offering us her 'pledge of support' so we can 'speak with a louder voice'. She urged us to find further allies in the Scottish Parliament, at the Scottish Executive and in the Community Health Partnerships, to be specific about the sort of services we want and to develop a clear plan for taking our proposals forward. We look forward to liaising more with Shona in future.

Shona was followed by Dr Cameron Stark, Public Health Consultant for NHS Highland, who presented current findings on the epidemiology and treatment of childhood stammering before outlining the research he and Roberta Lees have carried out on the attitudes of potential referral agents, such as GPs, Health Visitors and nursery teachers, in Highland. He concluded by stressing that training was the key factor that influenced referral rates, whether pre-qualification or 'continuing professional development'. Hence he argued that, if we seek to promote early referral, we should invest our efforts in promoting training for relevant professionals.

The rest of the day comprised:

Workshop programme

The varied programme included:
Rachel Everard on intensive courses at the City Lit, London
Graeme Duffin of the McGuire Programme
Ludo Thierry, local speech and language therapist, on avoidance reduction therapy
Donald Phillips, local speech practitioner on 'Anthroposophical speech'
a Speaking Circle workshop for experiencing speaking before a supportive audience.

Children and families were offered puppetry workshops, group discussion with local speech and language therapist, Karen Clements, and the mother of a local stammering child, and a preview of CD Roms on stammering in school.

'Fun session'

Stammering and non-stammering participants were invited to experience karaoke, mirror writing, telling jokes and other tricky tasks which tried to convey aspects of the experience of stammering, eg what it is like to feel self-conscious.

Equal Opportunities Committee (EOC) Inquiry

Participants shared experiences of discrimination arising at work, in higher education and in social life and discussed examples of 'good practice' in handling stammering in these contexts. We are seeking to give detailed and concrete evidence from people who stammer to the EOC inquiry on this theme - see Equal Opportunities - Visit to Scottish Parliament.

To round up, almost all evaluation sheets from the day rated the event as 'very good'/'excellent'. The local organising team, with Sandra at the helm, were extremely professional, well organised and welcoming. Aside from the programme, the venue was inspiring and the lunch and refreshments were delicious. Local press coverage was excellent due to the input of Robert Gordon University's press officer. Costs were kept to a minimum thanks to Sandra drawing on all her contacts and goodwill locally. This event will prove hard to match!

We gratefully acknowledge a grant from Aberdeen City Council for £300.