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From: Judy Kuster
Date: 13 Oct 2010
Time: 07:54:04 -0500
Remote Name: 76.17.183.48
That's an interesting question, Traci. I think the amount of time a person takes in finding a different word probably varies a lot from person to person. I know some PWS who have hidden their stuttering so effectively that their colleagues and even their husband/wife of many years can't believe they a PWS when they finally decide to tell them. You might be interested in reading a paper from the 2003 conference by the late Terry Dartnell, ) a very brilliant man from Australia (http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/pioneers/dartnall.html0 He knew he was a PWS and an SLP could pick up on his stuttering symptoms but others didn’t. I also remember one woman who came to our support meeting several years ago who never allowed any open dysfluency in her speech. She was literally 100 percent fluent. She'd been to SLPs in very reputable programs that told her she was not a PWS. Other people who are avoiding words, do so in a much more noticeable way that takes more time and isn’t hard to pick up – starting a word, pausing while they think of a different word, and then substituting that word in a way that breaks the normal flow of speech.