National Stammering Awareness Day 18th October 2008

Michael O Shea

The second Irish National Stammering Awareness Day will be held in Wynns Hotel Middle Abbey Street Dublin on Saturday the 18th of October from 9.30am. to 5.30pm.

Presentations will be given by the Irish stammering Association, Dublin Adult Stuttering, Aware, Speech and language Therapists, Irish McGuire Programme, Presentation on NLP, guest speakers will include, Anita Blom from Sweden who will speak on behalf of the European league of Stuttering Associations and her involvement with the International Stuttering Association, Mr Patrick Kelly, chairman of the Irish Stammering Association, Michael O`Shea author of "why I Called My Sister Harry", a special workshop for children and parents will be given by speech professionals.

The Awareness day is being run to coincide with International Awareness day which is on the 22nd of October.

The theme for the Awareness day is "Yes We Can All Make a Difference" and the theme for the International Awareness Day is "Dont Be Afraid Of Stuttering"

Admission for the whole day is free, if you have an interest in this topic you are welcome to attend.

For further information contact :

Jonathon Linklater at 087-1210044--E-Mail jp.linklater@gmail.com.
Michael O`Shea at 051-855150--087-2504611--E-Mail osheamm5@eircom.net

Stephen P

On behalf of the Irish Stammering Association I'll be doing a presentation on Internet Resources for Stammering. I'll also be giving a BIG shout out to the boards.ie Stuttering, Stammering & Speech Disorder forum, telling people how to access it and what content is on the forum. Hopefully it'll generate more traffic for the forum and for boards.ie in general. It would be great to see fellow posters on the forum attend the awareness day if you can make it, it would be nice to put a face against a user name

Edit: I'm going to sticky this thread for the moment so visitors can find out about the day

Michael O Shea

Hi all,
The second National Stammering Awareness Day recieved a very good response with one hundred and twenty two people attending. The attendies included parents, children, people who are challenged by stammering, teachers, students, and speech and language therapists.

A sincere thank you to all who put in the effort to attend, to all who presented and helped out on the day it was and is very much appreciated.

All one hundred and twenty who attended expressed their interest in having a forum/workshop on stammering to learn more about stammering, which is a very positive step to furthur increase stammering awareness in this country.

We will keep you all posted regarding location and dates for future events which may be of interest to you.

We would appreciate any advice or opinions that you may have regarding what you would like to be covered in the seminars/workshops, all proposels will be given serious consideration.


Michael O Shea. Jonathon Linklater.

Paul4As

I fairly enjoyed my trip down to the Awareness Day from Belfast!!!
I was definitely impressed with the turn-out and a big WELL DONE must be said to Michael O'Shea and Jonathon Linklater in the effort they put in to create such a successful day!!!
Hopefully some forum or workshops will be organised!!! Even some form of debate as well...debating is something that us stammerers I'm sure steered clear of when at school...so to have a stammering debate...that would be something else!!!
Being from Northern Ireland I don't really know how your health service works...but it would be good to get an important figure from your government or your health board to come along to a workshop/debate or Awareness Say...ask them why there is only one state run group stammering therapy course in Ireland...and the thing about it is the Dublin Adult Stammering course is only for those in the Dublin area!!! People in Sligo, Mayo, Galway etc have no access to free group therapy!!!
All in all...great day...plenty of positives!!!

Michael O Shea

Thank you for your response, the workshops and seminar will take place, we need to know what you all would like covered and discussed.

The NSAD is a positive step forward for all of us, we need to know what you all would like presented on the day.

So far we have a stammeing debate - what format??
Inviteing a Health Service Executive Offical, this is being worked on for next year.
Anything or anyone else???

Stephen P

I enjoyed the awareness day on Saturday. I was impressed by the turnout. A lot of good presentations. I think it's important to have representation from organisation's like the Samarithans. I never submitted my registration form but I would definetely be up for a workshop or seminar. As Paul said it would be good to have an official from the HSE to explain why there is only one course run by them (apart from PATMAR which I don't think is run anymore??)
I don't think it would involve much to have another couple of courses run across the country. We need politicans at these days too, if they want the votes they'll come along

Well done to all!!

Michael O Shea

Thank you Steven,
Good points and I would agree with you Steven, we need a lot more courses such as Patmar and D.A.S, at least one in each region would be a good start, we also need to support something like a family day for children who stammer where children and parents can join in group activity and just have fun for a few hours, it would be good for both the children who are challenged by stammering and the parents as well, I have no doubt that the Speech and Language Therapists would advise, support and lend a hand on the day.

A list of six people, Politicians and HSE officals will be contacted this week and invited to next years NSAD which will take place on Saturday the 17th of October at least one of the six should give us a positive response, and confirmation of attendance.

If you would like to send me your details Steven I wil put your name down for contact regarding future activities regarding stammering.

My e-mail address is osheamm5@eircom.net

Paul4As

When I say a stammering debate...maybe get a official from the HSE and throw a few questions at him/her regarding what they provide speech therapy wise for stammerers!!! What techniques they are "teaching" at the minute???...what do they briefly learn during their training???...what do they know about the Maguire Course, the DAS course???...have they ever sat in on a group therapy course???
On Saturday past because so much was going on presentations wise there was little time to open things up to the floor...it is very difficult to get timing right and I'm sure all speakers could've talked for longer only they were time constrained!!! A tough timing balance which I thought was done as best as it could've been on Saturday!!!
Michael is completely right when he talks about the importance of a family day for children and parents...with regards stammering therapy the younger you tackle stammering as we all know the easier it is for the individual/child to hopefully manage it in later life!!!
Hopefully Stephen your presentation will inject a bit more life in to this stammering forum!!! Hopefully get as many "replies" to match the "views"!!!
As for another Stammering Awareness Day for Saturday 17th October 2009...which is in the process of being organised already...you certainly have an abundance of energy and enthusiasm Michael!!!