This is a really good article on stammering by David Mitchell. I just saw it over at The Anti-Room.

I was going to go see The King's Speech until time and cash issues got in the way, but I was a little nervous, I must admit, because my father had a stammer. I suppose he still has it, but it has got far less evident over the years. But it is a painful thing, even though I was used to it as a kid, I suppose - the stammer itself was just the way my father talked, maybe, though nobody can miss the stress behind the stuck words and fail to empathise.

I liked what David Mitchell says about other people's reactions, about how they look away, about how stress and expectation increase the problem.

I have a cousin with a strong stammer and his family do not cope with it will. I was appalled by his parents' agonised and blatantly irritated reactions to his speech when I was visiting a few years ago - I mean - presumably he's done it his whole life, are they not used to it yet?

My grandmother is astoundingly condemnatory about any sort of disability - if she was in My Left Foot she'd be the neighbour who says, 'Poor Misfortunate Gobshite' of Christy and sympathises with his long suffering mother.

I like David Mitchell's point about eye contact being the right reaction. Eye contact and patience - that could perhaps be the best response to any disability we come across.