Selective Mutism

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Selective Mutism

• Kris Zebarth Holly Mitchell

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Table of Contents

• What is Selective Mutism?
• Signs of Selective Mutism
• Five Steps in School Interventions
• Critique of the ArticleIdentifying and Teaching
  Children with Selective Mutism by R. Marc A.
  Crundwell

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What is Selective Mutism?

• Students who will not speak in certain situations
  or places.
• These students will speak at home or with others.
• Tied to anxiety, fear, shyness

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Signs of Selective Mutism

• Excessive shyness
• Anxiety
• Blushing
• Avoiding eye contact
• Fidgeting
• Overly rigid

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School Intervention 5 Steps

• Bring speech into the school
• Transfer the speech to new locations and people
• Incorporating a reward system
• Increase in-school conversational opportunities
• Monitor and evaluate the intervention

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Step 1 Bringing speech into the school

• Start Conversational Visits with someone the
  child is comfortable with
• Start in quiet area
• Give the students a school-related reason for
  having these visits

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Step 2 Fading

• Slowly move the Conversational Visits to the
  classroom
• Main goal is to introduce other people into the
  visits
• Must be done very slowly

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Step 3 Reward System

• Incorporate a reward system for speaking
• Reward must encourage children to move to the
  next step of speaking in public

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Step 4 Increase Opportunities

• Organize seating plans and activities to increase
  opportunities to speak

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Step 5 Monitor and Evaluate

• Progress is often slow
• Track every small involvement in the class
• Anecdotal records and graphic reviews are useful

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Critique of Article

• Written from an educational viewpoint
• Presents different strategies for teachers
• Divided into meaningful subsections
• Uses a case study at the beginning

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Resources

• Crundwell, A. Marc R. (2006). Identifying and
  Teaching Children With Selective Mutism. Teaching
  Exceptional Children, Vol. 38 Issue 3, 48-54