“Sometimes it’s confused with just shyness and thought that a child will grow out of it, which usually isn’t the case.”
Isabel seems like a perfectly regular, playful kid at home.
But when the six-year-old’s teacher told her mother that Isabel was completely mute in class, it became clear something was seriously wrong.
“She said ‘well she’s mute, so we [are] wondering if she’s using sign language at home or how she’s able to communicate’,” the girl’s mother Tamra told The Project in a segment screened last night. “And I said to her, I really think you’ve got the wrong parent because my child’s fine.”
But it turned out Isabel wasn’t fine — and nor was her older sister Emilie.
“Apparently she would sit in the corner and she would just cry,” Tamra says of eight-year-old Emilie. “She wasn’t able to participate, she wasn’t able to make friends.”
Last term, Isabel even started to become “hysterical” when Tamra tried to leave.
The girls’ concerned parents took them to a psychologist, where they learned that both children have selective mutism, a complex anxiety disorder characterised by the inability to speak and communicate effectively in certain settings.
We meet kids with selective mutism who struggle to utter a word after leaving the house #TheProjectTV
Posted by The Project on Wednesday, 28 October 2015
“Selective mutism is an anxiety disorder similar to social anxiety or even public speaking anxiety where the child fears how someone is going to react, and because of those fears the children are literally too scared to speak,” Dr Elizabeth Woodcock of Selective Mutism Clinic Sydney told The Project.
Top Comments
My 7 year old is selectively mute. She has Down Syndrome, and most people assume she cannot talk. But she can, and does all the time at home. It took a year at school to start talking, and now she will only talk in her classroom with her teacher. She is in a class of 4 kids, 2 of who are completely non verbal, and a teacher and aide (both of who she had last year as well). She stops talking if a different teacher is in the room. If we have visitors she stops talking etc. Once she is really comfortable with someone she will talk, but it takes a long time. I don't even know if there is a treatment for her, given her cognitive disabilities.
My daughter suffered from this from the age of 2 until 5 when we finally got help through her wonderful teacher. Not a lot of schools or teachers know how to pick it or treat it. The more attention they get for it the worse it gets as they just want to blend in not stand out. Was great to see it highlighted on tv yesterday. Need to see more on anxiety in children as we were told by the psychologist that 1 in 5 children will suffer from anxiety and most will not be treated. Sad to think these children don't get help.