0:00
Hello, thank you for
joining us today for "Cluttering:
Some Considerations
for Everyday Practice".
My name is Kathleen Scaler Scott.
I am a Speech-Language
Pathologist,
and a Board Certified
Fluency Specialist.
I have been a practicing
clinician for over 23 years.
And I am an Associate Professor
at Misericordia University,
in Dallas,
Pennsylvania in the United States.
And I'm happy to be here today
to share with you some thoughts
to keep in mind
when you are trying to determine
if some of the clients
you're working with
have cluttering.
And if you find that
they do have cluttering,
what to do about it.
0:48
I wanted to start by
hopefully clearing up
some of the confusion
surrounding cluttering
that developed
over a long period of time.
I have some thoughts regarding
the history of cluttering
and how that contributed
to the confusion
about definition of cluttering,
diagnosis of cluttering.
So I'd like to share that with you
by way of background, in hopes that
it will help you understand
where we currently are
with our definition of cluttering.
Cluttering was
first described in a book,
the first book on cluttering
by Deso Weiss from Bulgaria.
And Deso Weiss described it
as a "central language imbalance".
And when he painted this picture
of someone who clutters,
he really painted a picture
of someone who,
when you listened to them,
they were very difficult to follow.
And the reason that he outlined,
that they were difficult
to follow was that
they were very disorganized
in their message.
They were difficult to understand.
He also painted
this broader picture
of someone with cluttering
who had other difficulties
in communication.
He painted a picture of someone
who interrupted others
in conversation,
was impulsive. Sometimes they had
difficulties in handwriting.
And he painted this picture
of someone, overall,
who was more similar
to what you might picture someone
with a severe uncontrolled
attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder.
Someone who was messy
and disorganized in general,
not even just in speech.
So it has kind of a broad
definition of cluttering.
And over time, that definition
vacillated between
becoming more broad
and becoming more narrow.
And you see here on this slide
many characteristics of cluttering
that were described
in different forms, overtime.
And because there were
so many symptoms here
described in so many ways,
it was very difficult to pin down
what exactly cluttering was.
People started to become confused
as to what is cluttering.
And what's the difference
between cluttering
and, say, a learning disability?
Or cluttering
and autism spectrum disorder?
And does everyone have cluttering?
Does no-one have cluttering?
Even, there was a period of time,
where it was so confusing that,
in the United States,
a lot of people stopped believing
in the whole concept
of what cluttering was.
So there are all these
different characteristics
that you may have heard
may be associated with cluttering.
And what I wanted to do
was explain to you
some of the myths
that have come out
through the history of cluttering
and some of the misconceptions
that people may currently hold
about cluttering
and its definition and diagnosis.
And then I want to explain to you
how that has evolved
into our current definition
of cluttering.
