The essential feature of Selective Mutism is the persistent failure to speak in specific social situations (e.g. at school, with peers and/or the teacher), despite being able to speak in other, more familiar situations.

For the diagnosis to be made, the condition has to be sufficiently strong to:

• Interfere with the child’s education and social and cognitive development.
• The duration of the disturbance is at least one month beyond the first month at school.
• The failure to speak must not be due to a lack of knowledge of the language.
• The condition cannot be better explained by a communication disorder (e.g. stuttering), or
• Any other known abnormality.

More detailed advice on assessment and reaching a diagnosis can be found in The Selective Mutism Resource Manual (Chapter 3, General Assessment)l by Maggie Johnson & Alison Wintgens, Speechmark Publishing 2001.

The SMIRA Leaflet for Professionals and other materials on the website should provide plenty of practical suggestions.

The rest of the class will pick up the teacher's attitude towards the Selectively Mute pupil.  Any labelling of the SM child by other pupils as ‘non-speaking' should be challenged.  The child can speak, but they feel too anxious to do so in that particular setting, so anxiety reduction is the priority.

Let the child know that you accept them and any form of communication they make, non-verbal and verbal.  Work with the parents to bridge the divide between the home, where the child does speak, and the school, where they do not speak.  This may involve visiting the child in the home setting and having the parents work with the child in school.  A small-steps programme can help the child to face and overcome anxieties gradually, thus building confidence in their ability to make progress in communicating verbally.

(See ‘Planning & Managing Intervention with a Small Steps Programme' in the Downloads section of the website).