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From: Terry Dartnall
Date: 10/23/03
Time: 2:09:10 AM
Remote Name: 132.234.251.213
Hi Jessica
One problem with this system is that you’re asked the same question several times and you forget whereabouts in the thread the answer is.
Actually the earlier questions had to do with why I became covert in the first place – how the whole thing started. I didn’t meet my father until I was two and a half. He’d been a regimental sergeant major chasing people around India and Burma, and shouting at them. When he came back he found this slow little boy who didn’t speak very well, and who was slow at everything else as well. He told me (many years later) that this drove him absolutely crazy. In many ways he was a very sweet man, but he was incredibly energetic, with a very loud voice. He used to say, “I’ll shout at you!” when I was naughty.
I suspect that that’s when it started. I probably felt pressured and panic stricken. Our youngest son was also a slow talker. We gave him plenty of time and everything turned out absolutely fine. By the way, I don’t blame my father. He was a kind, caring man (with a big voice).
However, that is not answering your question. When did I first discover I have the ability to be hide my stammer? I don’t think I ever conceptualised it like that. I don’t think I thought, in any very coherent way, at any sort of conscious level, “I’ve got a stammer, but I can hide.” I’ve just been aware that I have a stammer, but I don’t stammer most of the time. I didn’t come across the word “covert” until last year.
“I'm trying to determine if I would be able to detect a school-age child who is covertly stuttering.”
I’m as covert as they come, and the one SLP I went to (only a few years ago) picked my stammer immediately. I don’t it’s hard for an SLP to do. Especially with children, who don’t have such large vocabularies.
Dunno whether that helps. :-)
Terry