Hi - My DD who just turned 4 has just been diagnosed with selective mutism. She will be beginning therapy soon and we will be in contact with her school when she starts 4K in the fall. What I am wondering is if anyone knows of any online support groups or support info for my DH and I? Would love to chat with other moms of kids with SM.
No trauma - she has always been this way. We wrote it off as shyness, but got concerned when she never spoke to her teachers or classmates during 3K. She only speaks to our immediate family. She speaks often and very well - until there is anyone else around.
Sometimes, it occurs when there has been trauma to the child.
Has anything in her life, changed?
Was it sudden or always been this way?
My youngest dd now 8 was also diagnosed with selective mutism when she was 4 and in her second year of preschool. Her first year in preschool she only said 2 words to her teachers and never spoke to the other kids.
She would talk to my DH, my oldest dd, my twin sister and also to my in-laws who lived 2 hours away but would not talk to my mom, my aunt or my uncle who she saw several times a week.
Dd took a communication class once a week for 3 months with the city schools early childhood intervention specialists. She started interacting more during preschool. She had an IEP in place for kindergarten but because she was communicating with the teacher, we decided together to keep the IEP in place but not enforce it unless needed. We never needed it. By the end of K she was reading books to the class.
Dd is now going into 3rd grade and does not have any trouble communicating in school and has lots of friends. Outside of school, she will talk (even act silly) around other people she doesn't really know but if they talk directly to her, she will still freeze up. I can sometimes get her to respond but she will be very quiet and only speak one or two words.
Dd is now very involved in a lot of activities: Girl Scouts, softball, gymnastics and just recently Junior Roller Derby. She has come a long way from the very shy 9 month old baby who would pull away when I would try to do finger play with her during library story time.
I never looked into any kind of support group. I just let dd set her own pace for overcoming her selective mutism with just a bit of help from the school system. I always encouraged dd to respond to others but never forced her if she couldn't. As stated before, she still freezes up once in awhile. I am sure selective mutism will stay with her for a long time as she grows and encounters new situations.
Just keep encouraging your daughter to communicate. It can get frustrating dealing with selective mutism but don't let your dd see your frustration or punish her in any way. I had people tell me that if she was their dd they would not put up with it. That would have only made it worse.
Wish I could help - you are doing what I've heard to do and I don't know much more since that daycare closed and the child (like yours) that was friends w/my dgd is in a different school district than we are.
You might look on DailyStrength.com. A lot of support groups there for all sorts of medical conditions.
You hopefully can find a support group here:
http://www.selectivemutism.org/ ✿
