Posted by Adam

Sunday March 20, 2011

JOE Biden has opened up about his childhood stuttering problem and the taunts he received from his classmates.

The Vice President talked about his issues in an essay published in People magazine Wednesday.

“Ninety-nine percent of the time, the nuns [at his school] were great. I never had professional therapy, but a couple of nuns taught me to put a cadence to my speaking,” Biden wrote in his essay.

“But even in my small, boys’ prep school, I got nailed in Latin class with the nickname Joe Impedimenta. You get so desperate, you’re so embarrassed,” the former Delaware Senator added.

In addition to his teachers, Biden credits his mother, Jean, who refused to let his stuttering problem define him.

“As a child I stuttered and she lovingly would look at me and tell me ‘Joey, it’s because you’re so bright you can’t get the thoughts out quickly enough,’” Biden said during an address at the Democratic National Convention in 2008.

Biden, 68, was asked to talk about his childhood speech disorder given the recent popularity of the Academy Award-winning film The King’s Speech.

The film, starring Oscar-winner Colin Firth, follows the story of the painfully reserved monarch, King George VI, who overcame his debilitating stutter to deliver a momentous speech to his subjects at the beginning of World War II.

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