Spencer has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. his parents have a difficult time understanding him because his speech is fragmented and bizarre. he jumps from one idea to another, sometimes within sentences. this symptom is known as:

He is experiencing a symptom called disorganized speech: specifically loose associations. In this type of disorganized speech the patient will skip from topic to topic, sometimes in the middle of the sentence. They cannot organize speech in one train of thought and so there is no connection between one idea or thought to the next.