Question
I have a student diagnosed with cluttering. However her dysfluency is only in oral reading, not in conversation. Her 2 sisters, however, do what she does only in conversation. They do not speak rapidly, but rather unpredictably they slow down to phonetica
Answer
The symptoms that you list, disfluencies only in reading and slowing rate to phonetically break down words are not symptoms commonly seen in cluttering. They could possibly be related to language-learning problems, another disorder of fluency, and/or motor problems. St. Louis, Raphael, Myers & Bakker (2003) offer this definition of cluttering:
Cluttering is a syndrome characterized by a speech delivery rate which is either abnormally fast, irregular, or both. In cluttered speech, the person's speech is affected by one or more of the following: (1) failure to maintain normally expected sound, syllable, phrase, and pausing patterns; (2) evidence of greater than expected incidents of disfluency, the majority of which are unlike those typical of people who stutter." (p.4)
Daly (1996) included these four obligatory symptoms for a diagnosis of cluttering: excessive repetitions, poor concentration and/or short attention span, poorly organized thinking, and a lack of awareness of the problem (p.159). Learning and social difficulties may accompany a cluttering problem, but not necessarily. As a group, individuals with a cluttering disorder are fairly heterogeneous.
I would suggest that you consider additional assessment to clarify the child's diagnosis. This may provide you with insights into possible treatment strategies. I would also suggest including other members of the educational team (educator, psychologist, and audiologist) in the diagnostic process. The references I've listed include specific diagnostic tasks that you may want to consider.
References
Daly, D. (1996). The source for stuttering and cluttering. East Moline, IL: LinguiSystems.
Guitar, B. (2006). Stuttering: An integrated approach to its nature and treatment. 3rd Edition. Baltimore, M.D.:Lippincott Williams & Wilkens.
St. Louis, K.O., Raphael, L.J., Myers, F.L., & Bakker, K. (2003, Nov. 18). Cluttering updated. The ASHA Leader, pp. 4-5, 20-22.
A Journal of Fluency Disorders issue (Volume 21, issues 3-4, September - December) was devoted exclusively to cluttering.
Charlie Osborne, M.A., CCC-SLP has been working with individuals with stuttering problems for over 20 years. He is employed by the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point as a clinical assistant professor.