What is Selective Mutism?

An Anxiety Disorder Which Begins in Childhood

Nov 24, 2008 Autumn Heseman

There is an anxiety disorder which inhibits children from expressing themselves in certain situations. It is a rarely talked about disorder called "Selective Mutism."

Everyone remembers the overly shy child in class who didn’t enjoy getting up to speak or answering questions from his desk. At times, everyone felt a little anxiety about speaking in front of a group or crowd of people. Slight anxiety about speaking in front of others is normal, yet there are individuals who experience severe anxiety about expressing themselves at all in certain situations.

Selective Mutism in School

There are children who attend school yet do not talk at all. Although they don’t speak at school, they later go home and speak flawlessly with their family. Over the years, this was attributed to many different things. It is now known that this is an anxiety disorder called “selective mutism.” There is a group of people who feel such high anxiety about talking in certain situations that they completely refuse to talk.

Select Situations

Some feel uncomfortable at school, therefore will not communicate to anyone in their class, while others feel uncomfortable speaking in other situations such as work or events. Addressing this condition is a priority, because it has very little research and awareness.

The Cause of Selective Mutism

In the past people felt that this occurred only in children who had been mistreated or abused, but this belief has recently been shown to not always be the case. Just as people suffer from disorders such as depression, or autism, these individuals suffer from severe anxiety which leads to this “selective mutism.” It is important that educators and those who surround children with selective mutism understand what it is and how to address the issues surrounding it.

Is Selective Mutism a Language Disorder?

This is not just a shy child, it is a child who completely understands language use but just has anxiety which keeps him/her from using it in certain situations. It is most common in children, although can be seen up through adulthood. Although it can be very socially debilitating, it is good to know that this is very treatable.

Treatment for Selective Mutism

This disorder has been around for many years, yet it is not well known, and very misunderstood. In the past it was called elective mutism, but is more commonly referred to as selective mutism now. Selective mutism can co-occur with other symptoms and problems, so being educated on the issue is a good idea before attempting to work with anyone who may be suffering from this. Treatment can include cognitive-behavioral therapy, family therapy, play therapy, and school-based interventions. Treatment commonly consists of having the child become familiar with those around him through coping strategies and desensitization in the anxious area.

Commonly, a team of specialists is used to treat the child. Speech therapists can work directly with teachers and parents to address what the specific difficulties are. For more information, The Selective Mutism Group has a website which gives many treatment ideas and professionals who can help with this disorder.

The copyright of the article What is Selective Mutism? in Special Needs Education is owned by Autumn Heseman. Permission to republish What is Selective Mutism? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Selective Mutism in Children

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Comments

Nov 29, 2008 11:52 AM

Guest :

This is a condition that more teachers need to be awear of. I know of a student that suffers from this condition and had to be pulled out of public school and is now home schooled because the teachers did not believe in the condition and was putting the student it situatins that were harmful to her. I fell that this was a very bad situation that could have been prevented simply by educating the teachers and adminestration.

Dec 3, 2008 11:52 PM

Guest :

I guess teachers plays a very vital role in students/childrens development being their second parent in school, this is one problem that most of the time we teachers blind ourselves that such condition exists and thus we think at times all children behaves in a similar manner.
Teachers should be really educated with regards to this condition so that it won't get worst and early intervention is the first thing we should always ut in mind.

Jan 7, 2009 5:05 PM

busdriver208 :

I AGREE WITH YOU THAT ALL TEACHER'S NEED TO BE EDUCATED IN THIS AREA.
RECENTLY MY 5 YEAR OLD SON WAS DIAGNOSED WITH THIS.
HIS TEACHER TREATS HIM AS HE IS BEING DEFIANT, AND RECENTLY AT HIS IEP MEETING ( HE IS SEEN FOR SPEECH ) ALL SHE COULD FOCUS ON WAS BAD BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS ( WHICH I BELIEVE IS BROUGHT ON BY PUTTING HIM IN SITUATIONS WHERE HE HAS ANXIETY PROBLEMS ), AND ALL SHE COULD SAY WAS HE WAS BEING DEFIANT WHEN HE DID NOT TALK TO HER???? HELLO!!!! I KNOW YOU CAN LOOK THIS INFORMATION UP.., SHE IS THE TEACHER SHE NEEDS TO EDUCATE HERSELF!!
IF I CAN NOT GET THIS STARIGHTENED OUT I AM AFRAID I WILL HAVE TO PULL MY SON OUT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL.

3 Comments