W3 - Cluttering

Question 1

What is cluttering?

Answer 1

Cluttering is a fluency disorder that is characterised by a rate of speech that is abnormally rapid, irregular or both.

Rate abnormalities manifest in one or more of the following symptoms:

• An excessive number of dysfluencies that aren’t typical to stammering
• Frequent pauses and use of prosodic patterns that don’t conform to syntactic and semantic constraints
• Inappropriate/excessive amounts of coarticulation - the overlapping of sounds that are next to one another

“Accelerated speech is not always present, but an impairment in formulating language almost always is.” - Daly and Burnett - 1996

Question 2

What are the causes of cluttering?

Answer 2

The causes of cluttering are not clearly understood.

• Neurological and genetic factors are both present.
• Cluttering has links with dyspraxia, Tourette’s syndrome, dysphasia and onset occuring after a neurological trama.

Question 3

What are the 5 areas stated in Daly & Cantrell’s Dimensions of Cluttering Model? (2006)

Answer 3

• Speech
• Language
• Pragmatics
• Cognition
• Motor

Question 4

Based on the Daly and Cantrell Dimensions of Cluttering Model, how does a person with cluttering present in the area of language?

Answer 4

Receptive:

• Difficulty listening, holding and storing information they recieve through reading or verbally

Expressive language - verbally and in writing:

• Impacts organisation of the persons thoughts
• Poor sequencing
• WFD
• Lots of empty language - circumolocution (talking around a word)
• More typical dysfluencies - revisions and repetitions

Question 5

Based on the Daly and Cantrell Dimensions of Cluttering Model, how does a person with cluttering present in the area of speech?

Answer 5

Speech:

• Excessive repetitions of words/phrases
• Syllablic transpositions - Rillian Judd instead of Gillian Rudd
• Difficulties with prosody:

(Tachylalia - increased rate * Poor rhythm * Loud volume which then trails off * No pauses between words * Silent pauses * Monotony)

• Slurred articulation:

(omission of sounds and/or syllables * telescopes (missing parts of words))

• Dysrhythmic breathing

Question 6

Based on the Daly and Cantrell Dimensions of Cluttering Model, how does a person with cluttering present in the area of pragmatics?

Answer 6

Pragmatics

• Inappropriate topic introduction, maintenance and/or termination
• Poor turn-taking
• Appear disinterested when they’re not
• Poor listening/impulsive responses (so keen to speak they find it hard waiting for their turn in the conversation)
• Lack of consideration of the listener perspective
• Verbose
• Poor eye-contact

Question 7

Based on the Daly and Cantrell Dimensions of Cluttering Model, how does a person with cluttering present in the area of cognition?

Answer 7

Cognition

• difficulty taking the perspective of the listener
• poor attention span
• poor memory
• difficulty with organisation of thought - sequencing

Question 8

Based on the Daly and Cantrell Dimensions of Cluttering Model, how does a person with cluttering present in the area of motor?

Answer 8

Motor:

• Poor motor control
• History of clumsiness and being uncoordinated (this overlaps with dyspraxia)
• Slurred articulation
• Dysrhythmic breathing
• Prosodic difficulties
• Excessive repetitions