Cluttering resources

These web pages provide resources for SLTs who work with people who clutter. We recommend that you also view our resources on stammering

Back to Stammering and Cluttering

Last updated October 2025

RCSLT Guidance Info
The RCSLT develops guidance to promote good clinical and professional practice in line with HCPC standards. Please read our statement on guidance to understand how it is developed and how to use it.
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RCSLT Guidance Info
The RCSLT develops guidance to promote good clinical and professional practice in line with HCPC standards. Please read our statement on guidance to understand how it is developed and how to use it.
Download IconDownload as PDF

Research and evidence

 

Some key resources and pieces of research are highlighted on these pages but they are not exhaustive, and you should always carry out your own searches relating to a specific topic area, to be assured that you are accessing the most up-to-date research and evidence.

Useful starting points include SpeechBITE™, What Works and Evidence Maps from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). You can access over 1,600 titles via the RCSLT journals collection.

You need to use your own critical appraisal skills when considering the quality of any piece of research, whether found on these pages or elsewhere. This will include consideration of how relevant it is to your practice and the specific people you are working with.

Please see our pages on evidence-based practice for more support on finding and critically appraising research evidence.

 

Key research

  • Icht, M. et al. (2023a). ‘There is more to cluttering than meets the eye: The prevalence of cluttering and association with psychological well‐being indices in an undergraduate sample’. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 58(6), pp. 2022–2032.  doi:10.1111/1460-6984.12917.
  • Scaler Scott, K. (2022). ‘Cluttering in a School-Aged Child: Tackling the Challenges Step by Step’. Seminars in speech and language, vol. 17;43;, no. 2, pp. 130-146.
  • Sommer, M., Waltersbacher, A., Schlotmann, A., Schröder, H. & Strzelczyk, A.(2021). ‘Prevalence and Therapy Rates for Stuttering, Cluttering, and Developmental Disorders of Speech and Language: Evaluation of German Health Insurance Data’. Frontiers in human neuroscience, vol. 15, pp. 645292-645292
  • van Zaalen, Y. and Reichel, I.K. (2014). ‘Cluttering treatment: Theoretical considerations and Intervention Planning’. Perspectives on Global Issues in Communication Sciences and Related Disorders, 4(2), pp. 57–62. doi:10.1044/gics4.2.57.
  • Zukerman, G. et al. (2024). ‘Self-inefficacy’s impact on well-being indices in students self-identifying with cluttering characteristics’. Journal of Communication Disorders, 112, p. 106469. doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2024.106469.

 

Key journals

Guidelines

 

Quality standards

 

Other guidelines

Legislation and policy

 

UK-wide

 

England

 

Scotland

 

Wales

 

Northern Ireland

Learning resources

 

Books

  • Scott, K.S. and Ward, D. (2013) Managing cluttering: A comprehensive guidebook of activities. Austin, Tex: Pro-ed
  • Ward, David, (2018), Stuttering and cluttering: frameworks for understanding and treatment, Second edn, Routledge, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY.
  • Wilhelm, R. (2024). Too Fast for Words (Light): How discovering that I don’t stutter but clutter changed my life: book 2.
  • Wilhelm, R. (2020). Too Fast for Words: How discovering that I don’t stutter but clutter changed my life: book 1.
  • Van Zaalen, Y. and Reichel, I. (2015) Cluttering: Current views on its nature, diagnosis, and treatment. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse Inc.
  • Van Zaalen, Y. and Reichel, I. (2024) An Introduction to Cluttering: A Practical Guide for Speech-Language Pathology Students, Clinicians, and Researchers. Routledge

 

Website resources

Useful information and video resources can be found on the Too Fast for Words website: https://toofastforwords.com/

Useful organisations

International Cluttering Association

  • International organisation whose primary mission is to increase awareness and understanding of cluttering, and to improve treatment and quality of life for people who clutter.

STAMMA

  • This UK charity campaigns for social change and collaborates with organisations to help them work in ways that are more inclusive for their staff, customers and service users who stammer and clutter. They also offer a range of information and support for adults including support groups across the UK, parent workshops, Minecraft Club, and employment support, advocacy and helpline and webchat services.

Action for stammering children

  • This UK charity supports children and young people who stammer or clutter, their families, SLTs and schools by providing information and resources, championing research, and influencing policy and societal change.

Stammer Adventure Trust

  • Offers residential intensive courses for young people who stammer, combining therapy with outdoor pursuits

 

Specialist therapy

The following organisations provide specialist therapy for people who clutter. They also offer professional training courses for SLTs:

 

Clinical Excellence Networks

For other CENs see:

Related RCSLT resources

 

  • Position statement on Cluttering : We have created a position statement to help raise understanding of the role of speech and language therapy and SLTs in supporting people who clutter. It can be used to help make business cases or to pass to stakeholders and decision makers you are working with.

 

  • Cluttering overview  : These pages provide guidance and information for non-clinicians about cluttering. You can signpost service users and their friends and families to these pages so that they can learn more about the effects of stammering and how speech and language therapy interventions and knowledge can be used to support people who stammer in their everyday lives