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From: Russ Hicks
Date: 06 Oct 2005
Time: 21:52:20 -0500
Remote Name: 24.1.51.158
Hi Megan, Thanks for your kind words. I really hope you read "Chapter 1" of this paper called "The Iceberg Analogy of Stuttering" at http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/isad6/papers/hicks6.html . I wrote that part in 2003 and it forms the basis for this "Matrix" article. That first part really talks about the iceberg more than this one does. The Matrix is really more of an extension of the iceberg analogy by graphing categories of stutterers based on the density and size of their icebergs. ..... You asked about the Great White Shark. While most stutterers do have significant fears about speaking, the GWS haunts covert stutterers far more than overts. The reason is that it comes totally out of the blue and can have nearly devastating effects on the stutterer. A person can be almost totally fluent for weeks or months at a stretch and all of sudden one day they'll have a total lockup of the speech mechanism which is a total shock to the listener. What's going on? Is he or she having a seizure? It's so totally unlike anything they've ever heard this person say before. A person like me, a total overt stutterer, stutters all the time, so when I stutter, people KNOW that I'm simply stuttering. No big deal. There are really no Great White Sharks in my ocean. Yes, lots of barracudas which chew on me all the time, but no Great Whites. (smile) ..... You also might like to read the exchange between Chris Roach and myself above. Chris is a good friend of mine and is a total covert stutterer. He's really amazing. His answer to this question is probably better than mine! .... Thanks for asking a great question, Megan! I hope our paths cross some day. .... Russ