It wasn’t until I read out in class that I noticed I had a stutter. I just couldn’t get the words out and, if I did, they were very different to those coming out of the mouths of other pupils.

As I grew up, I avoided speaking at all costs, changed words and certain sounds. I never spoke out in class and didn’t enjoy meeting new people.

I really wanted to be a teacher, but knew I wouldn’t get through the teaching side of the course.

A little later in life, the drive to teach saw me sign up to an intensive therapy course called the McGuire Programme. It focuses on a different way of breathing when speaking - costal breathing, which gives power behind a breath and helps you control what you’re saying. This is done in tandem with psychological techniques, mainly aimed at accepting yourself as a person with a stutter.

It changed my life. I decided that I had enough speech control to follow my dreams. My new speaking technique has held up under the scrutiny of Glasgow classrooms, and I’ve been teaching now for nine years. I have pushed myself and have given speeches as a best man and at my own wedding. I’ve even presented at academic conferences, where people are happy to sit and listen to me - a person with a stutter!

Stuttering definitely helps me to teach. I know what it’s like to be overlooked, and I’m always looking past what conditions children might have and looking for what things they can do really well.

My pupils’ parents really like the fact that I’m open and honest about my own quirks. I hope everyone can be - they make you who you are. Nobody told me that as a child. I wish they had.

Adam Black is a primary teacher in Scotland and, in the New Year Honours list, received the British Empire Medal for raising awareness of stammering