Questions Raised About Cluttering Definition

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Re: Understanding Cluttering

From: FLORENCE MYERS
Date: 18 Apr 2010
Time: 17:49:58 -0500
Remote Name: 68.195.168.7

Comments

THANK YOU RENITA FOR GENERATING SOME VERY NEEDED DISCUSSIONS AND FOR YVONNE'S AND DAVID'S RESPONSES. REPLYING TO ALL THREE OF YOU, RESPECTIVELY: A) YES, RENITA, AT LEAST CLINICALLY SPEAKING, CLUTTERING IS LIKELY TO BE A PERCEPTUAL PHENOMONON AND IN THAT SENSE SUBJECTIVE. AS A MEANS TO APPLY SOME RIGOR TO "MEASURING" OUR PERCEPTION, PERHAPS A GOOD TOOL IS A RATING SCALE, MUCH AS ONE USES FOR VOICE DISORDERS OR NATURALNESS POST-FLUENCY THERAPY. B) YVONNE AND DAVID: I WISH WE COULD HAVE A FACE-TO-FACE DIALOGUE ABOUT THE EXTREMELY IMPORTANT ISSUES YOU RAISED, SOME PERHAPS MORE EASILY ANSWERED AND OTHERS WE CANNOT WITHOUT FURTHER RESEARCH. HOWEVER, I HAVE COME TO THE CONCLUSION THE BEST WAY TO "CAPTURE" CLUTTERING IS TO DO SO WHEN THE PARTICIPANT IS NOT AWARE AND THUS NOT EXERCISING EXTRA EFFORT TOWARD MONITORING AND MODULATING ONE'S COMMUNICATION OUTPUT. THE MORE INFORMAL AND NATURALISTIC THE SETTING THE MORE VALID THE SAMPLE, IN MY OPINION. (THERE IS A CORROLARY TO THIS, THAT THE BEST WAY TO CAPTURE LANGUAGE ISSUES IS TO GET THE CLIENT TO TALK ABOUT AN EVENT OR EXPERIENCE INFORMALLY, RATHER THAN THROUGH STANDARDIZED LANGUAGE TESTS. I DON'T THINK PWC HAVE PROBLEMS ONE SENTENCE AT A TIME, BUT MAY HAVE ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES WHEN CHUNKS OF THOUGHT NEED TO BE TRANSLATED INTO LANGUAGE OUTPUT.) IN RESPONSE TO THE ISSUES OF "SPECTRUM" (DAVID) AND "SUBTYPES" (YVONNE), I FEEL THAT OUR RESEARCH SHOULD SEE IF/HOW THE "DECK OF DATA" (AS A "DECK OF CARDS") LEND THEMSELVES TO PROFILES THAT LEAD TO SUBTYPING PWC, MUCH LIKE WHAT VAN RIPER DID WITH THE (CLINICAL) DATA HE HAD FOR PWS. IF IN FACT RATE IS A COMMON DENOMINATOR SERVING AS THE DRIVING FORCE FOR MANY OF THE SYMPTOMS WE SEE IN CLUTTERING, THEN IT STANDS TO CLINICAL REASONING THAT SPEAKING FASTER THAN OUR BRAIN CAN KEEP UP COULD INFLUENCE ONE OR MORE OF THE DOMAINS OF MOTORIC (SOUND AND SYLLABLE STRUCUTRE)AND LINGUISTIC OUTPUT (E.G., HAVING A COHERENT AND COHESIVE NARRATIVE). INFLUENCED BY SOME OF THE WORK BY CONTURE AND ASSOCIATIVES, I AM BEGINNING TO LOOK AT THE DISFLUENCIES OF PURE CLUTTERERS AS SYMPTOMS OF THOUGHT/LANGUAGE FORMULATION ISSUES RATHER THAN INABILITIES TO SEQUENCE SOUNDS AND SYLLABLES (AS WOULD BE THE CASE OF PURE STUTTERERS). AND, RE DAVID'S IDEA OF CLUTTERING AS A SPECTRUM DISORDER, I AM VERY INTRIGUED BY IT. FOR ONE YOU SEEM TO BE FRAMING A "CONTINUITY HYPOTHESIS" (CONTINUITY BETWEEN CLUTTERING AND TYPICALLY DISFLUENT SPEECH OF TYPICAL SPEAKERS). YOU PROVIDE COMPELLING ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE THAT, YES, WE ALL FROM TIME TO TIME HAVE MOMENTS OF CLUTTER-LIKE SPEECH, ESPECIALLY WHEN WE TALK FASTER THAN WE CAN HANDLE. ANOTHER POSSIBLY COMPELLING CLINICAL EVIDENCE IS THAT FOR PWC WHO NORMALIZE (ALBEIT FOR SHORT STRETCHES LIKE A MINUTE OR SO!), THEIR CLUTTERING SEEMS JUST TO MELT AWAY (USING WEISS' ICEBERG METAPHOR?). ONE FORMER CLIENT, FOR EXAMPLE, WAS ABLE TO SLOW DOWN (AGAIN, FOR A MINUTE AT A TIME) ALMOST TOO MUCH AND WITH EXAGGERATED PROSODY. I WOULD LIKE TO ADD A THIRD COMPONENT TO YOUR DISCUSSION ABOUT SEVERITY (WHICH WAS RENITA'S ORIGINAL QUESTION), THAT BESIDES THE RANGE AND SEVERITY OF CLUTTERING, PERHAPS WE SHOULD FOLD IN THE DEGREE OF CONSISTENCY OF CLUTTERED SPEECH IN THE SAMPLE. I AM STILL THINKING OVER KEN'S IDEA THAT THE CLUTTERED SPEECH NEED ONLY OCCUR SOMEWHAT BRIEFLY TO QUALIFY FOR THE LCD DEFINITION OF CLUTTERING. I SUPPOSE THIS IS AN ISSUE ABOUT WHICH WE CAN DISCUSS/DEBATE. HOWEVER, I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THAT "DURATION" OF CLUTTERING IN A SAMPLE (MUCH LIKE "% TALKING TIME CLUTTERED" IN THE CLUTTERING SEVERITY INSTRUMENT THAT KLAAS AND I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON) IS ALSO A VERY IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE ULTIMATE ASSESSMENT OF CLUTTERING SEVERITY. THANK YOU ONE AND ALL FOR GENERATING QUESTIONS AND IDEAS. YES, MUCH RESEARCH IS STILL NEEDED.


Last changed: 10/10/13