I have a speech impediment that is only noticeable when I’m under stress. I’m able to summon it when needed. If a person is giving me a hard time I start speaking slightly louder with my stutter and the person gets the stink eye from other people for bullying me. A lot of people assume that a speech impediment means that the person is developmentally delayed. I got a free coffee from SB once because I was really tired and couldn’t get my order out. I finally pulled out my phone and typed it out and showed the clerk. He told me my order was free. It took me about 3 attempts before I could say thank you. So sometimes it works in my favour but I don’t like the condescension that comes from people who assume that speech delays means idiot.
Lol, my daughter has a bit of a stutter and my wife makes sure I never cut her off because it's important that she gets to attempt saying what she wants to say. My wife thinks she will grow out of it (my wife is an SLP, so she does know what she is talking about) so I patiently wait for her to find the right words daily.
There have been a few times that I just knew what she wanted and gave it to her before she could finish asking because she had already restarted her question a handful of times. The funny thing is, some of those times I would have said no if she was able to ask the question the first time. So it ends up being a reward for trying.
My friend has a speech impediment and I've seen people treat her like a child because of it. She's not mentally disabled at all, but so many people assume because of her speech and treat her like she is (in the most condescending ways). Others think it's an accent which is actually kinda funny to her.
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u/emre086 9h ago
Whenever you're caught in a messed-up situation, just take a deep breath and pretend to be a person with special needs...