All About Selective Mutism

[Simply00123]

My 3yo child talks very well at home, in church or playground or anywhere outside school. But when in school setting, she won’t talk at all. She told us she enjoyed the school and likes her friends and teacher. She usually reply them with nod or shake her head or smile when they talked to her. She has been in the school for almost 6 months. However there was once when I accompanied her to a school event, she spoked to her teacher once and that was the only once till now.

Anyone has recommendation on where to access if a child has SM?

[theradiantspectrum]

Hello, I have a 6 year old piano student with SM. I’ve been teaching him for a few months, and I observed that he would never say hi, bye, or reply to any of my questions verbally. I understand from his mom that he’s very chatty at home, but when he’s outside, he doesn’t like talking to adults. Even in school, he would talk to his friends, but never with teachers.


He does communicate with me, in non-verbal ways. For instance, he will use his hands to answer me (e.g. if I ask how many counts, he will stick out the correct number of fingers), or if I give him a pencil, he will write out the correct answer for me. But speech is still not his preferred choice of communication.

Last month he finally said "Hello" to me, sadly it never happened again. I would really appreciate any tips on how to encourage SM kids to open up slowly to people outside their family.

[kay_liz]

Hi all, I suspect that my 6yo has selective mutism. I read up some information and realized that she displays some of the behaviours of having selective mutism.


She wouldn’t ask for help if she needed - eg. needs to go to the washroom but doesn’t speak up to ask permission. I am very worried she will pee in the classroom and it will become even more traumatizing for her.

Recently, i saw her classmate running after her and hitting her when he caught up with her. I can see she was very uneasy but she did not even dare to ask her friend to stop. This also made me worried if she gets bullied in school and never speaks up, she will always be a target.

I am really at my wit’s end and so tired bringing her to see professionals one after another but without a proper diagnosis or treatment. Because she also has GDD and is quite weak academically too, I had been focusing too much on school work that I realize, the main root of the problem isn’t her academic but as long as she is able to overcome her anxiety, she will definitely improve.

Does anyone know of a good doctor or therapy that I can bring her to? I am worried about it because she is going to Primary school next year.

[Specialkids]

Hi Kay_Liz,

SM may not be the key issue here but perhaps the GDD. Have you tried approaching Feiyue? They did a good job with my godson who was as you’ve described your daughter.

[guppy]

Hi,

Has anyone tried
https://integratedlistening.com/ssp-safe-sound-protocol/
According to website, it is a research-based therapy showing significant results in just five days in the following areas:

Social and emotional difficulties
Auditory sensitivities
Anxiety and trauma related challenges
Inattention
Stressors that impact social engagement

Thanks

[enne]

enne\" post_id=\"443918\" time=\"1307887737\" user_id=\"18363:

my DD1 has always been very chatty, active, playful... like any normal kids
but once she goes to sch, she will remain slient for as long as she's there...
even while playing, she has no problem sharing things with her classmates but not talking at all.. when her classmates talks to her, she doesnt reply..

we always think that she hasnt warm up to the place as such been encouraging her to speak up and we have been waiting to see improvement.. but as time files, her teachers, we as parents are worried if there's anything wrong somewhere..

People who know her situations always tell us to seek professional help as
they keep saying she is autistic but we know she is not..

today i manage to google some info which happen to let me come across an article about selective mutism that seems to be describing my ger is..
I further read it up at wikipedia..

for those who wish to read the link is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_mutism

I wonder if there's any mummies who have similar experience so that I can learn more or if not any mummies know of any professional that we can seek help from..

Thanks for reading the long post.

it has been 8 years since my first posting on this topic.
apologises to those who have PM-ed me but didn't get a reply from me.

to update on DD1 status

We brought her to see a psychologist or speech therapist (can't recall exactly as it's so long ago) but it was not as helpful as we had thought.

During the sessions, drawings and games were used to \"open\" her up and also as a way for them to understand her thoughts etc. Eventually we stopped going after a few sessions as we don't see any improvement at all. We just stopped and see how it goes at that point of time.

At that time, the situation was quite bad that the teachers in kindergarten suggested to getting a psychologist to come to the class and monitor her behaviour etc. But when she was in K2, there was a very patient teacher who really took extra care on her and eventually she made my girl open up.

Although it is a really slow process, she eventually get better when she went to Pri sch. She is now a very talkative girl.

[Joanne25]

Should I be worried that my child still can’t pronounce words and just nod if you are asking something? My child is only 2 years old and 4 months and we have noticed that we rarely heard her making sounds or pronounce words.

[zac's mum]

Joanne25\" post_id=\"1953529\" time=\"1576583648\" user_id=\"165766:

Should I be worried that my child still can't pronounce words and just nod if you are asking something? My child is only 2 years old and 4 months and we have noticed that we rarely heard her making sounds or pronounce words.

Yes please check with your PD. Usually even late talkers would be babbling plenty of Ba or Ma sounds. And it is unusual for a girl to start talking late. Mostly the late talkers who start saying their first meaningful word >18m are boys.

[theradiantspectrum]

Joanne25\" post_id=\"1953529\" time=\"1576583648\" user_id=\"165766:

Should I be worried that my child still can't pronounce words and just nod if you are asking something? My child is only 2 years old and 4 months and we have noticed that we rarely heard her making sounds or pronounce words.

Hi Joanne, one of my students was also non-speaking at 2 years+, he didn't call mama/papa but was generally very obedient so the parents didn't think it was a major issue. The parents only found it strange after they interacted with other speaking 2yr+ children. His mom sent him for a check-up and promptly began speech and occupational therapy. Now he's 5 years old and speaking fine. The diagnosis was mild autism, not a case of selective mutism.

[cse1217]

Joanne25\" post_id=\"1953529\" time=\"1576583648\" user_id=\"165766:

Should I be worried that my child still can't pronounce words and just nod if you are asking something? My child is only 2 years old and 4 months and we have noticed that we rarely heard her making sounds or pronounce words.

Perhaps can try letting her listen to songs and sing along with her to see if it encourages her to sing along and make sounds.