Selective Mutism Case Study

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Recommended Treatment for Children with Selective Mutism

Selective mutism is a rare and complex disorder associated with anxiety symptoms and sometimes speech-language deficits.1 SM is characterized by a child’s inability to speak consistently in certain situations despite being able to speak at other times. The onset of selective mutism typically occurs between ages three and six, and diagnosis occurs between ages five and eight1 and is most commonly noticed within the first year of school.1

The treatment for selective mutism consists of non medication therapy and medication-based therapy. Within the non medication based or psychotherapeutic approaches there is psychodynamic therapy and behavioral therapy. The medication based options
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Intervention and therapy must be developed quickly and effectively. If SM persists, serious implications for the progress and effectiveness of the child’s speech and language skills can develop. There is a critical need for more research from the fields of speech-language pathology to develop tools for for developing interventions that address the communicative, and social aspects of this disorder.8 It is important to recognize that the research and literature on the treatment for SM is difficult to apply given the rarity of the disorder. To date there has been little to no studies that contrasted outcomes for different intervention and steps should be taken towards that direction. Selective mutism is such a rare disorder that it remains a difficult and challenging disorder to study. This explains why the majority of the date on SM consists of small scale population selection and pilot data. Selective mutism continues to be a challenge for clinicians to study sue to its association with other conditions such as social phobias and anxiety as well as its potential to lead into speech and language disorders. Due to these conditions the small scale studies may not provide an accurate representation of SM population as a whole. Given the impact of this disorder, attention has pointed to the variety of interventions to treat selective mutism, including psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy, both therapies showing positive progress especially when used simultaneously. Without question future research is needed to develop and provide conclusive research on preventing and treating selective mutism to provide patients with a comprehensive clinical assessment and treatment options for this

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