Disfluencies Vs. Dysfluencies - Types, Causes And Differences Between Them
Author: Roselyn Mathew, Reg. CASLPO, Speech-Language Pathologist
Date: Wednesday, December 04, 2024
Table of Contents
Types of disfluencies
Causes of disfluencies
Types of fluency disorders and their causes
Common types of dysfluencies
Introduction
According to Tavakoli and Wright (2020)- “Fluency is the smooth and continuous flow of speech during communication, with minimal pauses and interruptions.”
A person can have a good fluent speech with good communication if they are prepared about what they need to talk about, as in a presentation. Otherwise, a natural speech which involves thinking would have some number of pauses, hesitations, filler sounds and/or word or sound repetitions. These are known as disfluencies or non-fluencies.
A fluency disorder is a speech disorder where the fluency or flow of speech is disrupted. The disruptions in the flow of speech due to a fluency disorder are known as dysfluencies.
Although disfluencies and dysfluencies are similar, there are certain differences between them. In this article we will read about disfluencies, dysfluencies and the differences between them.
Disfluency
Disfluency in a speech is a disruption in the flow of speech. It is common to have disfluencies in speech.
Common types of disfluencies
There are different types of disfluencies which are:
Filled pauses
Filled pauses are sounds and words like “um”, “uh”, “like”, “you know”. They are commonly used when the speaker needs more time to think and talk about something. They are also used as a habit by some people during conversations.
Repetitions
Repetitions of sounds, words or even phrases are also a common type of disfluency. They happen when a person is hesitant to speak, needs more time to think and form sentences or when they deliberately repeat to emphasize a word or a point.
Revisions
Revisions are changes made in a sentence before ending the sentence or immediately after ending a sentence. They may or may not be contradictory to the sentence that was initially meant to be said.
Silent pauses
Silent pauses are longer pauses made within sentences or between sentences. It is important to have natural pauses within and between sentences but excessive silent pauses disrupt the flow of speech. Silent pauses made especially at the end of sentences, might lead to interruptions from others as others might assume that the speaker has finished speaking.
Prolongations
Prolongations are stretching of sounds especially at the beginning of words. This is the least common type of disfluency. This primarily indicates hesitation of the speaker.
Interjections
Interjections are usually words that are made at the start or in between a sentence. They might not be grammatically necessary but can be used as a part of sentences. Examples of interjections are “well”, “so”etc.
Causes of disfluencies
Some of the main causes of dysfluencies are:
Linguistic or language proficiency
A person with a lesser language proficiency might have more difficulty to formulate a sentence immediately as they need more time to think of the correct vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure. This would cause a greater number of disfluencies than a person who is fully proficient in a language and does not need much time to formulate sentences.
Cognitive load
A person would tend to have more disfluencies when they are thinking more about the topic. This often happens if they are speaking about a complex issue or if the topic is unfamiliar to them.
Emotional factors
Stress, anxiety or nervousness can cause greater amounts of disfluencies as the person would be more hesitant and would focus less on the way they speak. Being upset or depressed could also lead to an increase in the number of disfluencies as the speaker would not be able to think clearly and formulate sentences because of their emotions.
Tiredness and being distracted
A person who is tired or distracted would not be able to fully focus on how they speak and this can cause disfluencies.
Cultural factors
In certain languages and cultures, people deliberately make disfluencies to indicate that they are hesitant or are involved in thinking. For eg. In Japanese language, saying “ano” means that they are thinking over it or are hesitant about saying something.
It should be noted that although disfluencies show lack of confidence in a professional setting, they are natural and common in a casual conversation and should not be viewed in a negative way in casual conversations.
Dysfluency
Dysfluencies are disruptions in speech that are caused due to a fluency disorder. Fluency disorder can be defined as “an interruption in the flow of speaking characterized by atypical rate, rhythm and disfluencies (eg. Repetitions of sounds, syllables, words and phrases; sound prolongations and blocks), which may also be accompanied by excessive tension, speaking avoidance, struggle behaviours and secondary mannerisms” (ASHA, 1993).
A person who has a fluency disorder would have hesitations, repetitions, fillers and prolongations in their speech but the severity of these would be much more than a person with disfluency.
Types of fluency disorders and their causes
Stuttering or Stammering
Stuttering or stammering is a fluency disorder where there are repetitions, blocks or prolongations during speech. There is no difference between stuttering and stammering. Stammering is the term used in the United Kingdom whereas the word stuttering is used in North America and many other parts of the world.
Cause of Stuttering
The exact cause of stuttering is unknown. A lot of theories have been proposed but none of these theories have been proven. However, it is being seen that there is a chance of developing stuttering in the following conditions:
Having a family history of stuttering
History of having any speech and language issues during childhood.
Being in contact with a person with stuttering at a young age.
Differences in brain structures
Having a psychological trauma during childhood
History of being overcorrected and given negative feedback for their speech at a young age
Having excessive anxiety and stress
Cluttering
Cluttering is a fluency disorder and is characterized by a perceived rapid and / or irregular speech rate, atypical pauses, maze behaviours, pragmatic issues, decreased awareness of fluency problems or moments of dysfluency, excessive disfluencies, collapsing or omitting syllables, and language formulation issues, which result in breakdowns in speech clarity and /or fluency (St. Louis & Schulte, 2011; van Zaalen-Opt Hof and Reichel, 2014).
Cluttering may have an effect on pragmatic communication skills and awareness of moments of disruptions (Teigland, 1996).
Cause of Cluttering
Again, no specific cause for cluttering has been identified. However, cluttering can be caused due to neurological causes or it can also be due to an inability of the speaker to get self-feedback of their speech. It has also been theorized but not proven that cluttering might be caused due to very mild or soft neurological impairments.
Neurogenic Stuttering
Neurogenic stuttering is a type of stuttering where there are interruptions in the flow of speech due to neurological damage. People with neurogenic stuttering often have a fluent speech before the neurological damage.
Cause of Neurogenic Stuttering
Neurogenic stuttering is caused due to a neurological or brain insult. These might be due to:
Brain trauma due to an accident
Stroke
Tumors or cysts
Brain infections like meningitis or encephalitis
Degenerative disorders like Parkinson’s disease or Multiple Sclerosis
Drug abuse
Side effects of prescribed drugs
Common types of dysfluencies
Common types of dysfluencies are:
Repetitions
Repetitions could be sound repetitions, syllable repetitions, word repetitions and even phrase repetitions. They may be single or of multiple frequencies.
Blocks
Blocks are the pauses caused due to difficulty to say a word or a sound. There are tensions in the mouth during a block which may or may not be visible to the listener.
Prolongations
Prolongations are the stretching of sounds that happen during words. Prolongations are mostly seen for the first sound of a word.
Hesitations
A person with dysfluency would have speech hesitations like delaying a response or thinking a lot before speaking. This may be due to difficulty in enunciating certain sounds or words.
Interjections
Interjections like “well”, “you know” can also be seen in dysfluencies which could be due to hesitancy to say a word or sound or to get time to think of using a different word than the word that was intended to be spoken initially.
Incomplete phrases
It means stopping speaking without ending the sentence.
Difference between disfluency and dysfluency
Although most types of disfluencies and dysfluencies are similar, there are certain differences between them. These are:
Difficulties with certain words or sounds
A person with stuttering finds certain sounds or words to be more difficult than other sounds and words in general.
People with disfluencies will show interrupted fluency equally for all sounds and words.
Neurological pathology
A person with neurogenic stuttering would have other issues along with dysfluencies like weakness, issues with motor movement etc. Disfluencies are not caused due to neurological impairments.
Secondary behaviours
People with stuttering typically show secondaries or secondary behaviours like tensing muscles in the face, clenching of jaw, blinking of eyes, abnormal hand and leg movements as a means to reduce their stress while saying a sound or a word. These are not observed in people with disfluencies.
Excessive anxiety and stress
Although a person with disfluencies might feel anxious about their speech in certain situations, people with stuttering have higher amounts of anxiety about their speech most of the time.
Speaking in-person vs over the phone or virtually
A person with disfluencies usually has the same number of disfluencies while speaking in- person or over the phone or virtually. Some people with stuttering feel an increase or decrease in their dysfluencies while speaking over the phone or virtually vs in- person.
Reading
People with disfluencies generally do not have disfluencies while reading whereas a person with stuttering/cluttering/neurogenic stuttering usually has dysfluencies while reading.
Difference in assessment and treatment
Dysfluencies are considered as symptoms of speech disorders like stuttering and the way they are assessed and treated is much different than working on reducing disfluencies.
Conclusion
Disfluencies and dysfluencies are interruptions in the flow of speech. Although they seem to be similar, there are differences among them. It is important to understand whether a person has disfluencies or dysfluencies in order to work in it and achieve a fluent speech.
To speak with a psychotherapist or one of the speech-language pathologists at Well Said: Toronto Speech Therapy, schedule an initial consultation by clicking the link below or calling (647) 795-5277.
