What is Cluttering?
Cluttering is a relatively little known fluency disorder (unlike stuttering or stammering.)
How do you know if you or someone else has a cluttering problem?
Since cluttering is not well known, many who clutter may be mistakenly described by themselves or others as “stuttering.”
Cluttering is a fluency disorder characterized by excessive breaks in the normal flow of speech that seem to result from disorganized speech planning, talking too fast or in spurts, or simply being unsure of what one wants to say, often accompanied by other symptoms such as language or phonological errors and attention deficits.
By contrast, the person who stutters typically knows exactly what s/he wants to say but is unable to say it fluently and speech becomes dysfluent due to repetitions, prolongations or blocks.
What are the signs of a person with Cluttering?
- Does not sound “fluent,” that is, does not seem to be clear about what he or she wants to say or how to say it.
- Has excessive levels of “normal disfluencies,” such as interjections and revisions.
- Has little or no apparent physical struggle in speaking.
- Talks “too fast” based on an overall impression or actual syllable per minute counts.
- Sounds “jerky.”
- Has pauses that are too short, too long, or improperly placed.
- Confusing, disorganized language or conversational skills.
- Limited awareness of his or her fluency and rate problems.
- Temporary improvement when asked to “slow down” or “pay attention” to speech (or when being tape recorded).
- Mispronunciation or slurring of speech sounds or deleting non-stressed syllables in longer words (e.g., “ferchly” for “fortunately”).
- Speech that is difficult to understand.
- Several blood relatives who stutter or clutter.
- Social or vocational problems resulting from cluttering symptoms.
- Learning disability not related to reduced intelligence.
- Sloppy handwriting.
- Distractibility, hyperactivity, or a limited attention span.
- Auditory perceptual difficulties.
How can I get help for cluttering?
Get a professional diagnosis from a speech-language therapist (or speech-language pathologist).
Speech therapy for cluttering may include working on the following in order to achieve fluent speech:
- Self-awareness and self-monitoring
- Reducing speaking rate
- Address any articulation (pronunciation) or language problems
- Speech motor planning or co-ordination
- Fluency techniques similar to treatment for stuttering
Most clutterers who benefit from speech therapy are aware they do have a significant speech problem, and are motivated to work hard to change.
Clutterers who are not sure that they have a problem or are relatively unconcerned about it tend not to improve as much from therapy.
We have edited and simplified some information to make cluttering easier to understand. For a full version, please see https://www.stutteringhelp.org/cluttering
Our Contributor
The author, Ms Magan Chen brings with her more than 30 years of speech and language therapy experience in both private hospital and enrichment centre settings. This gives us exceptional understanding of our clients’ medical and/or school needs.
She has helped more than 1500 individuals to overcome their communication or learning difficulties.
Ms. Magan Chen trained in London, U.K. (M.Sc. Human Communication) and Sydney, Australia (B. App. Sc. in Speech Pathology).
Magan is a registered Certified Practising Speech Language Pathologist (CPSP) with the Speech Pathology Australia.
She is also the founding President and a registered member of Speech-Language and Hearing Association Singapore (SHAS, the professional body representing Speech Language Therapists in Singapore.
Magan has been interviewed and featured in various newspapers and magazines such as Young Parents Magazine, The Straits Times & The New Paper.
Together with Magan, our team of competent and caring speech language therapists and teachers help hundreds of individuals improve their ability to communicate and have more say in life.
If you would like to see a highly experienced speech language therapist / pathologist for an initial consultation, please call us at (65) 6386-7532.
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