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From: Terry Dartnall
Date: 10/17/03
Time: 11:21:52 PM
Remote Name: 132.234.9.80
Hi Lorna
Thank you for your very articulate question. This question has been the subject of a LOT of recent discussion between covert and overt stammerers in the STUTT-L email list. The exchange has been pretty lively, because overts and coverts seem to have different perceptions of the situation.
The overts say, “Look at all your agonising, all the ducking and weaving you do to avoid stammering. Come on, get real! Just openly admit that you stammer. Then you won’t have to hide it any more! Then you’ll feel better about it!”
The coverts say, “We don’t want to stammer. And why should we, when we can pass as fluent most of the time? Wouldn’t YOU like to pass as fluent most of the time? Wouldn’t you do so if you could?”
I’ve been wondering recently whether to some extent the overts and coverts aren’t talking past each other. The overts say that the coverts should “come out,”—and what they mean by this is that they should openly stammer. The coverts resist.
But why can’t the coverts come out in a different way? Why can’t they admit that they stammer, with actually stammering? That would take the lid off the emotional pressure-cooker without them actually stammering in public (asking them to openly stammer is like asking someone with a fear of snakes to grab hold of a python!).
That probably hasn’t answered your question. Perhaps the point is this. Coverts probably think that the inner turmoil would get worse if they were open about their stammers, or if they openly stammered. After all, that has been our experience. Openly stammering is traumatic for us. Would it be traumatic if it was done under more controlled circumstances? I don’t know!
Also, we see fluency as a positive. The more fluent I am, the more confident I become, and this leads to greater fluency. As I say in my paper, I think that coverts have it in the back of their minds that if they can maintain their fluency this will lead to increased confidence, which will lead to increased fluency… and so on, until we are fluent all the time. This might be self-delusion. But … I’ve spoken to people who have said that they “grew out of their stammer”—so maybe it just fell away as they became more confident. Also, although I have never stammered in lectures, I am now MUCH more confident as a lecturer than I was to begin with.
A long reply, and I’m not sure that I’ve answered your question …
Terry