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From: Carla Di Domenicantonio
Date: 24 Apr 2010
Time: 15:15:01 -0500
Remote Name: 69.157.26.137
Hi, Andrea - Thank you for your comments. Wouldn't it be nice to have a simple way to differentiate clutterers from other groups? As I understand it, a right ear advantage is normal in younger children. As our auditory nervous system matures, the right ear advantage essentially disappears. If one is present in a young adult, for example, such a finding would suggest a maturational lag. Pure cluttering is characterized by the type of disfluencies we all have when we speak, except that they are noticeably more frequent. They do not include the part word repetitions, sound prolongations and blocks that characterize stuttering. This is one helpful way to differentiate pure cluttering from stuttering. When both disorders occur in the same person, however, it can be more challenging to pick up on the cluttering component. Fortunately, we not need a label to be able to address our client's speech symptoms. Most stuttering therapy approaches include some form of slowing down and we know that slowing down helps cluttering. It makes sense to expect that by working on the stuttering some aspects of cluttering will be influenced as well. If there are articulation and/or language components, then we can address them once a slower rate of speech and some fluency has been established.