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What is Selective Mutism?

Selective Mutism is a rare condition occurring in childhood. Selective Mutism is characterized by a consistent failure to speak in specific social situations in which there is an expectation for speaking. Children with this disorder have the ability to both speak and understand language, but fail to use this ability. Most children who experience selective mutism function normally in other areas of their lives. Selective Mutism is not a communications disorder and is not part of a developmental disorder. Therefore by definition, the disorder does not include children with conduct disorders, oppositional defiant behavior, and/or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

[Above extract from psychnet-uk.com]

Breaking The Silence

On the surface, selective mutism appears as one dimensional as simply not speaking, and although this is the element that is most observable, it is not at the crux of the behaviour. The mutism is in fact a secondary byproduct emanating from an underlying anxiety of intense proportions.

The disorder develops in childhood. What begins as common childhood timidity can develop into selective mutism. Many children show symptoms of shyness and withdraw when in the presence of new people. When a child does not speak directly to, or in the presence of somebody unfamiliar, there is a risk that they will begin to associate a feeling of calm with their silence. Their silence is likely to defer attention away leaving the child in a more relaxed state as they limit the intimacy of the interaction with the unfamiliar/seemingly threatening person.

There have been references that suggest a comparability to addiction; where the drug is staying silent and the high is the feeling of relief as anxiety lowers or subsides. Once an association is made between silence and anxiety reduction it can become a self-perpetuating cycle that gains strength each time a child will cope with an anxiety provoking social situation by not speaking.

The next time the child is feeling anxious is a social situation she will remember that not talking has helped to sooth the panic in the past and so she is likely to repeat this habit in similar future situations in an attempt to induce calm. The more often talking is avoided, the more intense the anxiety of talking becomes. The prospect of talking becomes something to fear as talking traditionally equals negative emotions for them.

Consistent research into phobias show that the more a feared item/situation is avoided in attempts to maintain a feeling of security, the more intense the fear becomes. The more a child stays silent in order to feel calm the more fearful she becomes when it comes to speaking. It is not commonly deemed characterisable as a phobia because of it's selective nature; children won't feel anxious alt all talking to certain people, yet with others they will experience fear of talking.

Once the phobia has escalated, the initial stranger anxiety may dissipate or even completely disappear, but the side effects of the anxiety (the mutism) may remain.

This is evident when children who have become comfortable around previously unfamiliar people that the felt threatened by initially. Despite feeling at ease in their presence over time, and enjoying their company they may continue to remain silent around them, not because they are fearful of them but because of the anxiety that speaking brings, confounded by the anxiety of expectation to speak.

All the expectation increases the attention on the child which was what the child was intent on avoiding in the first place. This is why putting pressure on the child to speak is not only ineffective but detrimental to their progress, and why other children are easier to be around because they don't make a big deal of speaking in the same way that adults are likely to.

Instructing them to speak is like telling an arachnophobia to go and stroke a spider, the same intense emotions are ignited in both, even at the mention of the fear. Some children will take a little longer to feel comfortable around other people, perhaps we should just allow them to naturally come out of their shell as they grow, not pressurising them into speaking and making it a massive deal, as the expectation will slow them down.

The key is to minimize the exposure a child gets to the negative associations of speaking so that they might be extinguished. When you allow them to express themselves without the anticipation of scrutiny, the child will eventually begin to relax and begin to learn that there are benefits of speaking, she will continue to speak as long as the benefits of speaking outweigh the negative consequences of doing so.

Breaking The Silence