A fluency disorder can significantly impact an adult’s or child’s ability to communicate effectively.
Having a fluency disorder makes speaking in a fluid and clear way more difficult.
Stuttering can cause you to have trouble saying what you want to say, despite knowing how you want to say it.
Whereas a cluttering disorder can produce disorganized and incomprehensible speech.
Both of these fluency disorders make it difficult for one to communicate and be understood by others.
Here at Forte Speech & Language Therapy, we offer in-home speech therapy in Los Angeles for stuttering and cluttering, for both children and adults.
Keep reading below to learn more about each of these fluency disorders and how speech therapy can help.
Speech Therapy for Stuttering
Stuttering is a fluency disorder that affects your natural forward flow of speech.
It can result in repeating sounds and/or syllables, prolonging sounds, or having blocks in speech production.
People who stutter typically show great variability in how they stutter.
Some common characteristics of stuttering include:
- Repeating sounds or syllables (for example, I l-l-l-like tea)
- Prolonging sounds (for example, I lllllike tea)
- Difficulty beginning to speak (for example, audible or inaudible blocks in speech production)
- Cooccurring secondary characteristics (for example, jaw tension, head or body movements, eye blinking, etc.)
Stuttering doesn’t have one specific known cause.
However, it is associated with differences in the way the brain controls speech production.
If you or your child stutters, speech therapy can help.
At Forte Speech & Language Therapy, we offer speech therapy services for both children and adults to increase speaking confidence, build self-advocacy skills, and improve the overall ease of communication.
Stuttering in Children
It’s normal for young children to occasionally stutter while they are learning how to speak.
So, how can you tell if your child’s stuttering will persist?
There are several factors that indicate if stuttering will be more likely to persist beyond childhood, such as:
- Family history of stuttering
- Age of onset (after 3.5 years old)
- Time since onset greater than 1 year
- Gender – males are 3-4x more likely to stutter
- Poor phonological or articulation skills
- Poor language skills
- Sensitive temperament
- If their stuttering seems to increase in frequency or severity
- Avoiding saying certain words (i.e., replacing “harder” words with “easier” words)
- Avoiding speaking despite seeming like they want to communicate
Children learn a significant amount of speech and language skills in the first three years of their lives. So, if they stutter, early intervention with speech therapy can be highly effective, and young children often overcome stuttering entirely.
Although there is no “cure” for stuttering, speech therapy can help children who stutter to become confident, effective communicators.
Stuttering in Adults
Although a high percentage of people will overcome stuttering in childhood, for many, stuttering will persist throughout their lives.
Stuttering can make it difficult for you to communicate clearly and effectively.
This can also result in the development of anxiety around social interactions and speaking situations.
Speech therapy can help.
Speech therapy for adults who stutter is aimed at helping you learn strategies to speak easily and effectively, while also improving your overall communication confidence.
If you stutter and are having difficulty communicating, we can help.
Here at Forte Speech & Language Therapy we focus on more than just fluent speech.
It’s also important to look at how stuttering impacts your self-image and daily life.
Speech Therapy for Cluttering
Cluttering is another type of fluency disorder that is characterized by a rapid rate of speech. This causes speech to become disorganized and unintelligible.
When someone who clutters speaks, they may demonstrate frequent pauses and interruptions in their normal flow of speech.
They may also produce sounds and words so quickly that they become jumbled and can’t be understood by others.
Common characteristics of cluttering can include:
- Demonstrating a rapid speech rate
- Collapsing sounds and words together
- Omitting word endings
- Conversational meandering, which is disrupting regular flow of speech
- Frequently changing or revising what is being said in the middle of a sentence
- Frequent and atypical pauses and interruptions in a sentence
People who clutter aren’t always aware that they clutter, or that others struggle to understand them.
Speech therapy for cluttering can improve your ability to self-monitor your speech production, and provide you with strategies to communicate clearly and effectively.
At Forte Speech & Language Therapy, we offer speech therapy services for both children and adults who clutter.
How Can You Tell the Difference between Cluttering and Stuttering?
While both cluttering and stuttering are fluency disorders, there are noticeable differences between them.
People who stutter are generally more aware of their difficulties with speech production than those who clutter.
Furthermore, there are characteristics of cluttering that aren’t usually associated with stuttering.
These can include:
- Rapid rate of speech
- Omitting syllables or word endings
- Excessive revisions and filler words
- Irregular pauses, syllable stress, or speech rhythm
Cluttering is also related to difficulties with attention and organization of language.
By evaluating speech and language skills, a speech therapist can differentiate between stuttering and cluttering.
However, it’s important to remember that cluttering and stuttering can occur together.
We at Forte Speech & Language Therapy offer comprehensive speech and language evaluations.
This way, you can better understand your strengths and difficulties in terms of speech.
From there, we provide individualized speech therapy treatment plans based on your unique needs.
Helpful Articles To Learn More About Speech Therapy For Fluency Disorders
You can learn more about fluency disorders with these articles from our speech and language therapy blog.
If you need additional help with speech therapy for fluency disorders, our experienced team of speech therapists are here to help you anytime.
Get Started with Forte Speech & Language Therapy Today
Whether you or your child has a speech fluency disorder, such as stuttering disorder or cluttering disorder, speech & language Therapy can help.
We’ll work with you to implement treatment plans and strategies to address you or your child’s needs.
If you think your child may have a fluency disorder, early intervention can be highly beneficial.
We offer 15 minute complimentary phone calls to discuss your concerns and address your initial questions.