A voice-fluency disorder is a type of speech problem, the primary type being stuttering. Stuttering is characterized by disruptions in the smoothness of speech and most commonly occurs in very young children. Cluttering is another type of voice-fluency disorder, a much less common condition involving speech that is too rapid, has odd pauses and is generally inarticulate.
Normal Fluency Problems
Most preschool-aged children develop fluency problems at some point, usually lasting a few months. This is a normal part of language development as the child progresses to making more complex statements and questions. The child may repeat words or phrases or the first part of a word several times while trying to form a sentence.
Stuttering Characteristics
Stuttering, in contrast, involves an unusually large number of interruptions in speech, and the interruptions last longer. Children struggle to make sounds and may repeat the first sound of a word several times. When the child is experiencing this speech disruption, he may become upset. He might begin to avoid saying certain words which cause him trouble. The stuttering may disappear completely when the child sings, reads out loud, or speaks in unison with other people, such as reciting a poem at school or saying a prayer in church.
Stuttering Bodily Signs
Children experiencing episodes of stuttering may look like they are trying to speak while not making any sounds. They also may indicate struggle and frustration when having difficulty speaking by moving their arms or opening their eyes wide. These are not characteristics of children having fluency problems during normal speech development.
Stuttering Prevalence
According to the U.S. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, stuttering most often occurs when children are between 2 and 5 years old, and about 5 percent of all children stutter at least for a short time. Most children outgrow stuttering, and those with more severe or continuing problems usually can resolve the issue by working with a speech therapist. Stuttering is twice as common in boys as in girls, and older boys are up to four times more likely to stutter than girls. By adulthood, only about 1 percent of people still have problems with stuttering.
Causes of Stuttering
Most stuttering is developmental in nature, occurring in young children learning speech skills. Neurogenic stuttering, in contrast, can occur after brain injury such as a head trauma or a stroke, and often can be improved or resolved through speech therapy. Psychogenic voice disfluency occurs when stuttering has a psychological component, such as when a child stutters only when speaking in front of a group.
Cluttering
Researchers have not determined a cause for the rare type of voice-fluency disorder called cluttering. People with cluttering fluency disorder speak too rapidly, run words together and can be difficult to understand. They may keep revising what they say and use too many interjections, such as "uhh." Usually, they do not show the bodily signs associated with stuttering, although the disorder may appear along with stuttering. It also can appear in conjunction with dyslexia. Many clutterers are completely unaware of the extent of their speech dysfunction, except as their friends or family have told them about it.
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