And, because cluttering isn’t well-known the way stuttering is, parents may chide their child for speaking too fast without realizing that he/she has a speech disorder. Unlike stutterers, people with cluttered speech often have limited awareness of their own disfluencies unless someone else points them out. Potential difficulties in reading and writingĬonversation with a clutterer can be confusing because of the fast speech rate and slurred words.A person who clutters may take a while to get to the point.Starting new sentences before the previous one is finished.For example, “I had a great time at the party” might come out as: “I had great time at party”.For example, a clutterer might say “tevision” instead of “television”.Excessive interjections like “um” and “uh”.Symptoms of stuttering and cluttering usually appear during the preschool years, but cluttering isn’t as easy to identify and often goes undiagnosed. Such speech characteristics are called “disfluencies.” Cluttering is related to, but different than, stuttering. Stuttering, the most common and well-known fluency disorder, involves repeating parts of words, dragging out syllables, and getting “stuck” on certain sounds. One you might not have heard of is a fluency disorder called “cluttering.” What is cluttering in speech?įluency disorders cause problems with the rhythm, speed, and flow of speech. It’s common for children with autism to have one or more speech-language problems, from delayed first words to childhood apraxia of speech.

Pressured speech