ABSTRACT
Cluttering is a characteristic disturbance of diction. The term is apparently kindred with ‘clatter’; the original meaning was to rattle, to tattle, to gabble, the noise being imitated by the word. Similar onomatopoetic terms are the German ‘poltern’ or ‘bruddeln’ and the French ‘bredouillement.’ An important characteristic of Cluttering is that the speaker is originally unconscious of it; he has the illusion that his expressions are just as correctly uttered as those he hears around him. If attention is drawn to his speech, he is usually able to speak distinctly; after a short time, however, he relapses into his disorder. Concentration on speech can be trained by reading, as suggested in the following technique. The text which has to be read aloud by the patient is covered by a piece of cardboard into which a little window is cut, which permits only one syllable to be read at a time. The patient shifts the window from syllable to syllable.
