What is Selective Mutism?

Selective Mutism (SM) is the inability to speak in one or more situations outside the home due to intense anxiety. Most of the time, the place where the child has the most trouble speaking is in school. The actual DSM-IV-TR (Diagnostic and Statisical Manual of Mental Disorders) definition is as follows:

A. Consistent failure to speak in specific social situations (in which there is an expectation for speaking, e.g., at school) despite speaking in other situations.
 

B. The disturbance interferes with educational or occupational achievement or with social communication.
 

C. The duration of the disturbance is at least 1 month (not limited to the first month of school).
 

D. The failure to speak is not due to a lack of knowledge of, or comfort with, the spoken language required in the social situation.
 

E. The disturbance is not better accounted for by a Communication Disorder (e.g., Stuttering) and does not occur exclusively during the course of a Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Schizophrenia, or other Psychotic Disorder.

Unfortunately and I guess, fortunately, I now know more about SM that I ever thought I would. My 10 year old daughter speaks very little outside the home, especially in school. At home, she speaks constantly. Too much, in fact. She is very animated, energetic, intelligent, engaged and happy. At school, she speaks occasionally and only with those she feels especially comfortable. She is now in fourth grade and the problem has become more severe. As this is the beginning of my journey to help her, I thought I'd make it very clear what this "disorder" is and is not.

SM is:

-not a learning disability
-not on the autism "spectrum"
-not a cognitive disability
-not a speech problem
-an anxiety-based disorder

SM is often:

-misdiagnosed as autism
-misdiagnosed as Aspberger's Syndrome
-mistaken for defiant behavior

After spending two years with a clinician who never once thought it was significant that my child rarely spoke a word in school, I fired her and took things into my own hands. No one really knows a child like his/her mother.

The reason for this blog is take you through the journey from school silence to hopefully, and with a lot of support and hard work, school communication.

Here's to helping to break the silence.