What is speech fluency?

Fluency refers to continuity, smoothness, rate, and effort in speech production. All speakers are disfluent at times.

What is a speech fluency disorder?

A fluency disorder is n interruption in the flow of speaking characterized by atypical rate, rhythm, and disfluencies (e.g., repetitions of sounds, syllables, words, and phrases; sound prolongations; and blocks), which may also be accompanied by excessive tension, speaking avoidance, struggle behaviors, and secondary mannerisms. (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association [ASHA], 1993).

What is a stuttering?

Stuttering, the most common fluency disorder, is an interruption in the flow of speaking characterized by specific types of disfluencies, including:

• Repetitions of sounds, syllables, and monosyllabic words (e.g., "Look at the b-b-baby", "Let's go out-out-out")

• Prolongations of consonants when it isn't for emphasis (e.g., "Ssssssssometimes we stay home")

• Blocks (i.e., inaudible or silent fixation or inability to initiate sounds)

What is cluttering?

• Cluttering, another fluency disorder, is characterized by a perceived rapid and/or irregular speech rate, atypical pauses, maze behaviors, pragmatic issues, decreased awareness or fluency problems or moments of disfluency, 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 & Reichel, 2014)

Source: https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/fluency-disorders/