Cluttering: The Hidden Speech Impediment
- 11 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Written by: Evelyn Castro
Reviewed by: Vanessa Rosario
Introduction
Have you ever gotten so excited about a topic that you start to gabble and babble the sentences? Now imagine this happening to you every hour of the day all your life, except not because of excitement, but because of a speech impediment that affects how you communicate your thoughts to others.
Cluttering makes an individual speak in an irregular, rapid, and uncontrollable way. They often omit pronunciation of syllables and sounds, as well as using an exaggerated amount of filling words while expressing ideas, such as “like”,“uhm”, and “so”. Just like the word “clutter”, patients feel like their thinking process feels pressured and disorganized, which creates a necessity to get them out as fast as possible, resulting in being misunderstood by the listeners (Sue et al., 2026).
Unfortunately, many of the general and scientific audience do not know a lot about cluttering. Some patients are misdiagnosed with just stuttering while others underdiagnosed with having an anxiety speech (Sue et al.2026). The lack of awareness has also affected mental health in patients with cluttering, as many of them face different levels of social stigma while growing up. Even though this has affected research about the speech impediment, many scientists and speech pathologists stress the need to raise awareness and continue investigating more about the causes, effects, and treatment for this.
Why Could Cluttering Happen
While there is not a sufficient amount of cluttering research to define a specific causation for the disorder, there is evidence to believe that it can be related to the brain and genetics.
About the Brain
There are two small areas in the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex and the supplementary motor area. They both work together in detecting errors and making decisions, in this case with formulating words and phrases (Kelkar et al., 2023). We also have a neurotransmitter, which is a chemical messenger that passes from one neuron to another, called dopamine. Research has found an hyperactivity of this neurotransmitter in these two areas, which could potentially be one of the reasons why people with cluttering struggle to detect pauses between words and talk faster than someone without cluttering (Kelkar et al., 2023).
This finding could be reinforced with other research in the basal ganglia, which is also known to have a role in decision making and work with the neurotransmitter dopamine. Scientists saw that people with cluttering also showed an increase of dopamine information between neurons in this area, which could help with explaining the mechanism of cluttering in the brain (Yvonne & Dario, 2022).
About the Genetics
While there is research that shows clutter being passed along families, the data is not enough to conclude anything yet(Kelkar et al.,2023). However, more twin studies and genetic research could help in reinforcing this hypothesis.
Effects in Mental Health
People with cluttering are often not aware of their fast and uncontrollable speech, causing much confusion on their listeners. This has caused them to become very aware of their body language, such as getting closer to them, squeezing their eyes, or nodding confusingly (Garret et al, 2026). This not only causes anxiety and exhaustion on them, but creates a negative conception of themselves. They often become extremely scared of talking to others, since they believe people would not take what they say seriously (Yvonne & Dario, 2022). While this normally starts in early adolescence, social isolation can continue into adulthood, affecting both their professional and personal life.
Conclusion
Cluttering continues to be a very unknown speech impediment in the world. Yet, it is crucial to continue investigating how it happens and the consequences it has in the patients. Educating others about speech impediments will not only allow them to understand how to help others with cluttering, but also help patients feel less in conflict with themselves. Research can also improve therapy techniques in the condition, improving patients’ speech faster than ever.
References
Garrett, S., Ballantyne, A., Gladman, T., & Swift, M. (2026). Exploring the personal impact of cluttering: A scoping review of current evidence. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 87, 106197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfludis.2026.106197
Han, W., Zhou, L., Lu, J., & Pill, S. (2026). Cluttering in Children and Adolescents: Speech Motor Development, Neurocognitive Mechanisms, and Allied Health Implications. Children, 13(1), 97. https://doi.org/10.3390/children13010097
Hof, Yvonne & Strangis, Dario. (2022). An Adolescent Confronted With Cluttering: The Story of Johan. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. 7. 1357-1369. 10.1044/2022_PERSP-21-00267.
Kelkar, P. (2023). Cluttering. In S. Maruthy & P. Kelkar (Eds.), Understanding and Managing Fluency Disorders (pp. 186–210). Routledge, London, UK.
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