Around 80 participants gathered in Ayr for BSA Scotland's Spring 2009 Open Day.

From left, James Stewart (BSA Scotland convener), Jan Anderson, and Adam Ingram (Minister for Children and Early Years in the Scottish Parliament).

Savoy Park Hotel, the venue for our Ayr Open Day in April 2009.

"I found the Open Day very informative and will recommend it to others. It provided a very supportive environment for people to speak." Adult who stammers "I learned I'm not the only one who stammers" Child

The event was attended by adults who stammer, children who stammer and their parents, other relatives, friends, speech and language therapists and teachers. All joined to share knowledge and experience, give and get support in an informal, friendly setting.

The setting of the Savoy Park Hotel provided exceptionally luxurious space and comfort for our programme of plenary sessions, parallel workshops and the crèche.

Opening by Minister for Children

The day was opened by Adam Ingram, Minister for Children and Early Years in the Scottish Parliament. He noted the importance of early intervention and explained the legislative framework for supporting children and young people in Scotland. These include The Early Years Framework, Curriculum for Excellence in schools and the Additional Support for Learning Act.

Mr Ingram offered support for our work, noting that stammering "is a very important issue which has a significant impact on the lives of children and young people affected by it". Plans were agreed for a subsequent meeting between BSA Scotland and the Minister.

Sharing experiences

As usual at BSA Scotland Open Days, upbeat testimonies from people who stammer, describing challenges overcome and lessons learned, were a highly popular component of the programme. We heard about the experiences of Convenor James Stewart, including his work in the Scottish Parliament, and Lynne Mackie, Outspoken project participant on her experiences with drama.

We also welcomed new voices to the platform: Simon Vaughan described his very particular experience of 'covert stammering', Stewart McDerment outlined his journey from hiding his difficulties in school to working in a range of jobs that presented very real communication challenges (e.g. working in a police station and in front line customer services) and Martin Brough extolled the benefits of self therapy, based on a trusted single text, that transformed his approach to dealing with stammering and opened up career opportunities.

Workshops, all well attended, included games for children and young people who stammer, discussions about child and adult therapy, covert stammering and a presentation on Summer 'Scool.

Outspoken preview

According to many, the highlight of the programme was the final session of the day on the Outspoken drama project. Jan Anderson and Iain Piercy (film maker) showed draft material that will feature on the upcoming DVD on stammering in adolescence, to be circulated to secondary schools in Scotland in June. The audience was shown scenes from the Outspoken play and sample 'talking head' footage of the young adults who stammer who were involved in the project from its early beginnings last Spring.

The event flyer recommended fish and chips from Dino's as the perfect way to round off the day... so practicing what we preach, a carload from Edinburgh did just that before the long drive home - ducking to avoid greedy seagulls, we braced ourselves on the windswept prom!

Thanks... to all who participated as speakers; to the BSAS events sub-committee (Richard Perry, Liz O'Connell, John Mann and James Stewart); to local speech and language therapist Tracey Dailly and her colleagues for co-presenting a workshop and supporting the crèche; to Summer 'Scool therapists who ran a workshop and facilitated games; to Iain Piercy for joining us to show the DVD footage; to Allan Wilkes and Tam Wilkinson for IT support; and, to Cian Bell for photography.