Language and academic abilities in children with selective mutism

Abstract

We examined receptive language and academic abilities in children with selective mutism (SM; n 5 30; M age 5 8.8 years), anxiety disorders (n 5 46; M age 5 9.3 years), and community controls (n 5 27; M age 5 7.8 years). Receptive language and academic abilities were assessed using standardized tests completed in the laboratory. We found a significant group by sex interaction for receptive vocabulary scores such that within females, the SM and mixed anxiety groups had significantly lower receptive vocabulary scores than community controls. We also found that children with SM and children with anxiety disorders had significantly lower mathematics scores than community controls. Despite these differences in mathematics and receptive vocabulary performance, children with SM and children with anxiety disorders still performed at age-level norms, while more children in the community control group performed above age-level norms. Findings suggest that despite their speaking inhibition in the school setting, children with SM are still able to attain the receptive vocabulary and academic abilities that are expected at their age levels.

Joint Attention in Parent–Child Dyads Involving Children with Selective Mutism: A Comparison Between Anxious and Typically Developing Children

“…The primary caregiver completed the SSQ-Parent, a 15-item parent-report questionnaire that assesses the extent to which the child speaks in a variety of settings including the home, school, and community, and to a range of different people, including family, friends, and strangers, on a scale of 0 (never talks) to 2 (talks in a normal voice). The internal consistency of the SSQ-Parent has ranged from .82 [26] to .92 [18] in past studies, and it was .95 in the present study.…”

“…Teachers completed the SSQ-Teacher, a 7-item questionnaire that asks teachers to rate the extent to which children speak in a variety of settings in the school, including the classroom, hallway, and playground, and to a variety of individuals, including teachers and friends, on a 3-point scale ranging from 0 (never talks) to 2 (always talks). We recently reported the internal consistency of the SSQ-Teacher as .95 [18], and it was .96 in the present study.…”

“…Given that SM most often presents itself in the school setting and with unfamiliar individuals, such as teachers, many studies have focused on the functioning of children with SM in tasks associated with the school setting, such as language and academic development [2,4,[15][16][17][18][19]. However, almost no research has investigated the quality of interactions between children with SM and their parents.…”

An Investigation of Control Among Parents of Selectively Mute, Anxious, and Non-Anxious Children

“…No cases met exclusion criteria for speech and language disorders (according to parent report) or limited familiarity with English. These criteria to classify children with SM have also been reported elsewhere [24]. Twenty-one participants (13 female, 8 male) met criteria for the SM group.…”

Behavioral and Socio-emotional Functioning in Children with Selective Mutism: A Comparison with Anxious and Typically Developing Children Across Multiple Informants

“…Classification in the SM group also required that the absence of speaking was not due to a communication disorder, and that the absence of speaking persisted for a minimum of one month. The same criteria used to classify children with SM in the present study have also been used elsewhere (Nowakowski et al 2009). …”