Cluttering
Cluttering is a disruption in speech fluency but is different than stuttering. Cluttering presents with significant breaks in the flow of speech with:
· Disorganized planning of speech; may sound confusing in conversation; overall difficult to understand
· Speaking too quickly or in uneven spurts
· Possibly unsure of what to say
· May occur along with stuttering
· May be other symptoms such as language difficulties, phonological errors, or attention deficits
· Excessive levels of revisions or interjections
· Little or not apparent physical struggle to speak
· Seems to talk “too fast” and sounds “jerky”
· Pauses in speech that are too short, too long, or improperly placed
· Mispronunciation or slurring of speech sounds or dropping off syllables in longer words
The speech-language pathologist conducts a thorough assessment and develops a treatment approach that addresses contributing problems such as speaking rate, misplaced pauses, pronunciation and language concerns, and fluency.