Cluttering diagnosis and treatment
Kathleen Scaler Scott is a frontrunner when it comes to stuttering and cluttering. She works as lecturer and clinician and has written several books on cluttering. Kathleen has also treated many cluttering clients. In this video she explains how cluttering can be diagnosed and treated. Next to that she answers questions like: How does she approach the treatment of cluttering? Which techniques does she use in therapy? What other strategies are there? And what advice does she have for people who clutter? Tune in for this interesting video, so you can learn more about diagnosing cluttering.
As a speech language pathologist you want to be sure your clients get the right diagnoses. In other words; does the client stutter, clutter, or does he/her have characteristics of both disorders? Susanne Cook, specialist in the field of fluency disorders and professionally involved in the International Cluttering Association, explains how she diagnoses and treats cluttering. She also addresses question like: What are important elements in the treatment of cluttering? What is her approach to treating people who clutter? And what can speech-language pathologists do to feel more confident in generating a differential diagnosis?
Attention points in diagnosing cluttering
Distinguishing stuttering and cluttering can be difficult. First of all, cluttering and stuttering often occur simultaneously in one patient. Secondly, the two disorders share a number of symptoms. For example, repetitions, interjections and tachylaly (speaking too fast) can be found in cluttering and stuttering. But there are also clear differences between the two disorders. For example, it looks like people who clutter are rather oblivious to the glitches in their speech, because they just talk on without worrying too much.
People who stutter, however, are painfully aware of their speech problem and would do anything to hide it. There are many more differences, by the way. Based on dozens of years of clinical experience former scientist and speech-language therapist Deso Weiss put together an overview. Also, our self-test can assist SLPs in finding out whether your client stutters or clutters.
| Points of difference | Cluttering | Stuttering |
|---|---|---|
| Self-awareness | Poor to none | Good |
| Speaking under stress | Better | Worse |
| Speaking when relaxed | Worse | Better |
| Concentrating on speech | Better | Worse |
| Speaking after being interrupted | Better | Worse |
| Giving short answers | Better | Worse |
| Speaking in foreign language | Better | Worse |
| Reading aloud known text | Worse | Better |
| Reading aloud unknown text | Better | Worse |
| Handwriting | Hasty, uninhibited | Forced, inhibited |
| Attitude towards speaking | Indifferent | Worried |
| Psychological attitude | Extraverted | Introverted |
| Goal for therapy | Focus on details | Focus derived from details |
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