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Re: what is cluttering?

From: Ken St. Louis
Date: 12 Oct 2010
Time: 11:12:05 -0500
Remote Name: 157.182.15.31

Comments

Hi Tom, Yours is a very frequently asked question. I suggest you take a look at the online conference on cluttering last April. Here is the link: <http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/ica1/icacon1.html> This is what I wrote with three colleagues in 2007 comparing cluttering with stuttering: "A relatively large proportion of the cluttering literature has been—and continues to be—devoted to differentiating cluttering and stuttering (e.g., Filatova, 2002; Froeschels, 1957[Q8]; Georgieva & Miliev, 1996). Unfortunately, this literature suffers from the lack of a universally agreed on and 302 Section V Intervention: Related, Less Common Fluency Problems 4We use the term “rate deviations” rather than “rate disorders” because, as will be clarified later, excessively rapid speakers (ERS) are often not considered to have speech disorders, per se. [Q7] [Q8] Ch16_p293-323.qxd 1/11/07 3:11 PM Page 302 empirically supported definition of cluttering. The available literature as a whole suggests that the essential difference between these clinical populations centers on the speaker’s level of preparedness for saying intended utterances. Stutterers know what they want to say but are interfered in their attempt to produce various words, whereas clutterers do not necessarily know all of what they want to say—or how—but say it anyway. Part-word repetitions, prolongations, and blocks are typically produced by stutterers, whereas excessive but normal disfluencies often characterize the speech of clutterers. These include interjections, revisions, word repetitions, phrase repetitions, and unfinished words. It should be noted that word repetitions, especially one-syllable words, can also be symptoms of stuttering, especially as initial symptoms among young children who stutter. Equally important, cluttering does not appear to engender nearly the degree of concern about saying particular sounds or words as stuttering does; the clutterer may even be quite unaware of many of the disfluencies or rate symptoms acutely noticed by others. A recent listserv for adults who clutter, although very likely not a representative sample, reveals that individuals who regard themselves as clutterers do experience concern and anxiety about speaking that appears to be more situational than word-specific. It is often reported that clutterers do not acquire and manifest the kinds of accessory behaviors such as eye blinks that often accompany stuttering." Yes, cluttering and stuttering often do occur in the same people. They might well have different causes, but we do not yet know for sure. Stuttering usually is identified before cluttering: 2-3 years of age versus elementary age. I hope this helps. Ken


Last changed: 10/23/10