Hi Ciel,
My name is Madi and I am a graduate student in a speech-language pathology program. I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about your experience with cluttering and provide some suggestions for a speech pathologist who is working with a person who clutters.
My experience with cluttering is that I rarely meet others. Stuttering seems to be much more prevalent, although cluttering is just as common. While there is a research community and a number of experts, it is till surprisingly little known among “lay” SLPs (often becasue of a lack of knowledge in the instituions of teaching (university departments etc.)
I remember not understanding what was wrong with my speech, until I as an adult met a SLP at the then Norwegian Centre for Speech Pathology (Bredvedt senter for logopedi). While they found out what was the matter with my speech. However, the chemistry was wrong, and I quit (I think I also expected a “cure”). However, I tend to shy away from “boring” stuff (ADHD does that, and there is a link between ADHD & cluttering). It was around this time (1993 or so) that I encountered my first fellow clutterer. I had never met anyone who spoke like me before!
So: I think (or, I am of the impression) that cluttering can go hand in hand with ADHD, and we tend to easily be bored of repetetive tasks. Then there’s the matter of masking. As you undoubtedly know, we can hide our cluttering very well!
Working with a clutterer: I guess you have to “comstruct” your work in accordance with the two types of cluttering (I have a different clutter than, say Joseph Dewey).
Meet them as individuals, cluttering may be “one” diagnosis, but it has many variations that each requires their own plan, treatment. I have to write more later…