Cluttering is a speech and communication disorder characterized by a rapid rate of speech, erratic rhythm, and poor syntax or grammar, making speech difficult to understand.

Classification

Cluttering is a speech and communication disorder that has also been described as a fluency disorder.

It is defined as:

Signs and symptoms

Cluttering is sometimes confused with stuttering. Both communication disorders break the normal flow of speech, but they are distinct. A stutterer has a coherent pattern of thoughts, but may have a difficult time vocally expressing those thoughts; in contrast, a clutterer has no problem putting thoughts into words, but those thoughts become disorganized during speaking. Cluttering affects not only speech, but also thought patterns, writing, typing, and conversation.

Stutterers are usually dysfluent on initial sounds, when beginning to speak, and become more fluent towards the ends of utterances. In contrast, clutterers are most clear at the start of utterances, but their speaking rate increases and intelligibility decreases towards the end of utterances.

Stuttering is characterized by struggle behavior, such as overtense speech production muscles. Cluttering, in contrast, is effortless. Cluttering is also characterized by slurred speech, especially dropped or distorted and sounds; and monotone speech that starts loud and trails off into a murmur.

A clutterer described the feeling associated with a clutter as:

Differential diagnosis

Cluttering can often be confused with various language disorders, learning disabilities, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Clutterers often have reading and writing disabilities, especially sprawling, disorderly handwriting, which poorly integrate ideas and space. It can occur with Parkinson's disease.

Treatment

The common goals of treatment for cluttering include slowing the rate of speech, heightening monitoring, using clear articulation, using acceptable and organized language, interacting with listeners, speaking naturally, and reducing excessive disfluencies.

Slowing the rate of speech can help many of the symptoms of cluttering, and can be achieved in a couple of different ways. It is important that speech language pathologists do not nag their clients to "slow down" incessantly, as this does not help and can actually hinder progress. Additionally, it is important to remember that speech rate often increases when emotional arousal or stress increases. Instead of constant verbal reminders, clinicians may use a combination of delayed auditory feedback (DAF), giving out "speeding tickets" (written reminders to slow down speech), or recording speech and having clients transcribe it, writing in where there is need for spaces and pauses. This is the earliest record of the speech disorder of cluttering.

In the 1960s, cluttering was called tachyphemia, a word derived from the Greek for 'fast speech'. This word is no longer used to describe cluttering because fast speech is not a required element of cluttering.

Deso Weiss described cluttering as the outward manifestation of a "central language imbalance".

The First World Conference on Cluttering was held in May 2007 in Razlog, Bulgaria. It had over 60 participants from North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Society and culture

Weiss claimed that Battaros, Demosthenes, Pericles, Justinian, Otto von Bismarck, and Winston Churchill were clutterers. He says about these people, "Each of these contributors to world history viewed his world holistically, and was not deflected by exaggerated attention to small details. Perhaps then, they excelled because of, rather than in spite of, their [cluttering]."

See also

  • Voice disorders
  • Developmental verbal dyspraxia

References

Sources

  • Studies in Tachyphemia, An Investigation of Cluttering and General Language Disability. Speech Rehabilitation Institute. New York, 1963.
  • Myers, F. and K. St. Louis, (1992) Cluttering: A Clinical Perspective, Leicester, England: Far Communications
  • Too fast for words: Easy explanations and tips for treatment and coping
  • Cluttering: Some Guidelines
  • Overview of Cluttering
  • International Cluttering Association page
  • ASHA Cluttering Updated Article
  • ISAD presentation on cluttering experience
  • Computer Aided Assessment of Cluttering Severity