ABSTRACT
Cluttering is a speech disorder characterized by clutterer's unawareness of his disorder, by short attention span, by disturbances in perception, articulation and formulation of speech and often speed of delivery. It is the verbal manifestation of central language imbalance, which affects all channels of communication and behaviour in general. The chapter describes components core to lowest common denominator (LCD) definition and then others which have been considered a part of cluttering but currently sit outside definition. Cluttering is arguably unique amongst speech and language disorders in that a key diagnostic feature is overly rapid speech. Earlier perspectives on cluttering suggested that cluttering speech output could also be compromised by the types of articulatory error similar to those seen in apraxia of speech, and some commentators have likened cluttering to disorder of apraxia itself. In containing wide range of symptom diversity, cluttering is different to motor speech disorders, which are associated with processing deficits at specific points within processing chain.
