What type of speech disfluency is characterized by interruptions in speech flow primarily due to difficulty in producing sounds?

The type of speech disfluency characterized by interruptions in speech flow primarily due to difficulty in producing sounds is stuttering. Stuttering typically manifests as hesitations, repetitions of sounds or syllables, and prolonged sounds, which disrupt the natural rhythm of speech. This disfluency often involves not just a struggle to get words out, but also physical tension and anxiety associated with the act of speaking.

In contrast, cluttering involves a rapid and irregular speech rate that can make speech difficult to understand, but it is not primarily due to sound production issues. Speech delay refers to a significant lag in speech development compared to peers, rather than inherent difficulties in sound production. A voice disorder involves problems with the quality, pitch, or volume of the voice but doesn’t inherently disrupt the flow of speech in the same manner as stuttering does. Therefore, stuttering is the answer that best fits the description of having difficulty in producing sounds as the main characteristic of the disfluency.