Differential diagnostic characteristics between cluttering and stuttering—Part one

• Published in: Journal of fluency disorders 2009-09, Vol.34 (3), p.137-154
• Main Authors: Van Zaalen- op ’t Hof, Y., Wijnen, F., De Jonckere, P.H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child clinical studies; Cluttering; Developmental disorders; Diagnosis, Differential; Disorders of higher nervous function. Focal brain diseases. Central vestibular syndrome and deafness. Brain stem syndromes; Female; Humans; Language and communication disorders; Learning disabilities; Learning disorders; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Motor Skills; Narration; Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes); Neurology; Predictive Cluttering Inventory; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reading; Reproducibility of Results; Speech; Speech Disorders - diagnosis; Speech Production Measurement - methods; Stuttering; Stuttering - diagnosis; Task Performance and Analysis; Time Factors; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0094-730X; 1873-801X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfludis.2009.07.001

Speech-language pathologists generally agree that cluttering and stuttering represent two different fluency disorders. Differential diagnostics between cluttering and stuttering is difficult because these disorders have similar characteristics and often occur in conjunction with each other. This paper presents an analysis of the differential diagnostic characteristics of the two disorders, and a proposal for distinguishing between the two in clinical settings. The main goal of this two-part article is to set objective norms for differential diagnostic assessment of cluttering and stuttering symptoms, based on the three main characteristics of cluttering indicated/identified by St. Louis, Raphael, Myers & Bakker [St. Louis, K. O., Raphael, L. J., Myers, F. L., & Bakker, K. (2003). Cluttering updated. The ASHA leader. ASHA, 4–5, 20–22]: a fast and/or irregular articulatory rate together with errors in syllable, word or sentence structure and or a high frequency of normal disfluencies (not being stuttering). In the first half of the article objective measures are compared to the subjective clinical judgement made by fluency experts. In other words, which characteristics can be found in the speech profiles of persons who were diagnosed as people who clutter or stutter? In the second part of the article results on the Predictive Cluttering Inventory [Daly, D. A., & Cantrell, R. P. (2006). Cluttering characteristics identified as diagnostically significant by 60 fluency experts. Proceedings of second world congress on fluency disorders] are discussed in relationship to the subjective and objective measurements studied in the first half of the article. Educational objectives: The reader will learn about and be able to (1) describe obligatory characteristics of cluttering, (2) plan cluttering assessment on speech characteristics and (3) use and interpret a checklist on possible cluttering characteristics.