Cluttering

Cluttering (also called tachyphemia) is a communicative disorder characterized by speech that is difficult for listeners to understand due to rapid speaking rate, erratic rhythm, poor syntax or grammar, and words or groups of words unrelated to the sentence. The person with cluttering may experience a short attention span, poor concentration, poorly organized thinking, inability to listen, and a lack of awareness that his or her speech is unintelligible.

Cluttering is sometimes confused with stuttering. Both communication disorders break the normal flow of speech. However, stuttering is a speech disorder, when cluttering is language disorder. In other words, a stutterer knows what he or she wants to say, but can't say it; in contrast, a clutterer can say what he or she is thinking, but his or her thinking becomes disorganized during speaking.

Stutterer's are usually dysfluent on initial sounds, when beginning to speak, and become more fluent towards the ends of utterances. In contrast, clutterer's are most clear at the start of utterances, but their speaking rate increases and intelligibility decreases towards the end of utterances.

Stuttering is characterized by struggle behavior, such as over tense speech production muscles. Cluttering, in contrast, is effortless.

To compare, a stutterer trying to say "I want to go to the store," might sound like "I wa-wa-want to g-g-go to the sssssssssstore." In contrast, a clutterer might say, "I want to go to the st...uh...place where you buy...market st-st-store."

Cluttering is also characterized by slurred speech, especially dropped or distorted /r/ and /l/ sounds; and monotone speech that starts loud and trails off into a murmur.

Clutterer's often also have reading and writing disorders, especially sprawling, disorderly handwriting, which poorly integrate ideas and space.

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