asking was good, instead of declaring an assumption that some people do. "can I p... p...." "you can pet him. go on." "no I mean p...." "you can pet him. YOU CAN PE-" or instead of getting offended at rejection or correction, which some people do. "can I p...." "pet him? you mean? awwww-" "no, I me-" "why did you ask then? if you gonna say no, why did you ask? excuse me did you just, did you just sigh at me right now? no you may not pet my dog! you may not! baaaah! bahhhhhh!" \*dog hides behind her\* asking or waiting is better than "speaking for" especially because of the possibility of facial expression misreading. Many stutterers have secondary behaviors like frowning or blinking hard, or wide open eyes and so on, which may be misinterpreted as anger, ignorance, eye allergy, sleepy, surprise.