What Causes Selective Mutism?

Do you suspect your child may have selective mutism?

Perhaps you’re wondering why they’re comfortable speaking in certain situations, but unable to speak at all in others.

Selective mutism most commonly occurs in children.

It can impact their speech and social development.

If your child has selective mutism, or you think they might, speech therapy can help.

At District Speech and Language Therapy, our speech therapists in Washington DC will work with your child to address their selective mutism and help them develop their communication ability.

We have experienced pediatric speech therapists who help your child learn ways to communicate in any situation and build their confidence to be more independent.

To get a better understanding of selective mutism, we’re going to be taking a closer look at some of its potential causes and how a speech therapist can help them.

What Is Selective Mutism?

We’ve talked about selective mutism on this blog before.

We’ve looked at a general speech therapy approach to selective mutism, to give you an overview.

We’ve also looked at how to treat your child if they have selective mutism.

But here’s a quick review of this diagnosis.

Selective mutism is a type of anxiety disorder.

It’s characterized by an inability to speak at specific times, places, and situations, but not others.

RELATED ARTICLE: Can Speech Therapy Help With Mental Health?

It’s not a form of shyness or intentional refusal to speak, even though it may appear that way.

It’s simply an inability to speak in a particular instance.

It occurs more often in children.

How To Tell If Your Child Has Selective Mutism

Selective mutism is different than kids who are nonspeaking.

Nonspeaking children include kids with nonspeaking autism.

With this, kids are either unable to speak entirely, or their speech is very limited.

That’s not true with selective mutism.

Kids with selective mutism have no problem speaking in environments that they feel comfortable in, such as at home or with friends.

However, they may not be able to communicate in other instances, such as at school or in public settings.

Some kids are naturally shyer and quieter when entering new environments, so it’s a good idea to monitor them.

For it to be considered selective mutism, this behavior must persist for at least a month.

Selective mutism can develop at various points in childhood, and may continue into adulthood if left untreated.

Keep in mind that if your child has selective mutism, they may want to speak, but are unable to do so.

If your child has selective mutism, or you suspect that they might, it’s important to address it with a speech therapist as soon as possible.

Causes of Selective Mutism?

The causes of selective mutism aren’t fully known.

It’s thought to be related to the activation of the brain’s danger response, which causes a communication shutdown.

It’s believed that there are a number of factors, such as co-existing conditions, that can contribute to selective mutism.

Let’s take a closer look at how some of these disorders may have an impact on the development of selective mutism.

1. Anxiety

Anxiety is a reaction to stress characterized by feelings of anticipation and fear.

While everyone experiences mild levels of anxiety in certain situations, anxiety disorders involve intense and excessive fear, worry, and anxiety.

They are one of the most commonly occurring mental disorders.

Anxiety disorder can cause a number of symptoms such as muscle tension and avoidance behavior.

Many people try to avoid situations that may trigger or worsen their anxiety.

There are several different types of anxiety disorders, each of which can impact your life in different ways.

Selective mutism itself is a type of anxiety disorder, which can cause children to be unable to speak in situations in which they’re expected to speak.

Although they’re able to speak in other situations, like at home with their family members.

This lack of speech can interfere with social communication and academic performance.

It can also lead to the development of excessive shyness, social anxiety, and social isolation.

While selective mutism is its own type of anxiety it can also be a sign and symptom of another anxiety disorder.

For example, 25% of people with selective mutism have another type of anxiety disorder as well, such as social anxiety disorder.

Autism Spectrum

Another factor that can contribute to the development of selective mutism is autism.

But, what is autism?

Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental difference.

That means the brains of autistic kids develop differently.

It’s characterized by differences in behavior and in communication, like difficulty interpreting social cues.

As well, it’s common for autistic kids to have differences in their speech and language skills and development.

According to the Selective Mutism Association, these two have significant overlaps.

Both can create challenges with speaking and communicating, developmental delays, and the use of nonspeaking communication.

Additionally, they both involve differences in expressive and receptive language, and differences in comfort in social situations.

However, children with selective mutism only have challenges in certain situations, while in others they’re able to have typical social interactions and communication skills.

On the other hand, the communication challenges autistic children face will be true for all social settings.

A study found significant comorbidities between them as well.

We’re not going to say autism causes selective mutism.

Much more research is needed here.

However, there is a link between the two.

Sensory Processing Differences

Sensory processing disorder is a condition that makes it difficult for the brain to receive and respond to information coming in through the senses.

It can cause people to be oversensitive to their environment, which can lead to reactionary behavior.

Sensory processing differences are often seen in neurodiverse people, such as autistic people.

According to the Smart Center, there is a relationship between sensory processing disorder and selective mutism.

Sensory processing disorder may be an underlying cause of selective mutism.

A child that has difficulty processing sensory input in certain overstimulated situations, like a classroom, can develop anxiety.

This anxiety can cause excessive fear and lead to a communication shutdown that makes children freeze, avoid interacting, or become mute.

Children with selective mutism and sensory processing disorder may also misinterpret environmental and social cues.

This can cause further feelings of anxiety and frustration and impact their ability to communicate in certain situations.

Keep in mind that many of these symptoms aren’t present in comfortable and predictable settings, like at home.

Other Factors

As we’ve already mentioned, there isn’t an exact known cause of selective mutism.

We’ve discussed a few conditions that share similarities with selective mutism and that may contribute to its development.

However, there can be many other contributing factors.

Some other factors can include:

• Extreme shyness
• Desire for solitude
• Feeling embarrassed speaking in public
• Environmental factors, such as certain places and people
• The presence of other speech or language disorders

Selective mutism isn’t yet fully understood.

Research is ongoing towards discovering its root cause.

But regardless of the cause, if your child has selective mutism, speech therapy can help.

What Does NOT Cause Selective Mutism?

So far we’ve looked at some potential factors that can contribute to the development of selective mutism.

There are other factors and conditions that people believe may cause selective mutism, but they don’t.

Let’s take a quick look at a couple of them.

Stuttering

Stuttering is a condition that disrupts the normal flow of speech and can cause people to have a hard time saying certain things.

If your child stutters, it can cause them to experience anxiety speaking.

This can make them elect to not speak in certain situations.

But this is different, ASHA reports.

Stuttering makes it difficult to make certain sounds or words or maintain a rhythm of speech.

While this may lead people with a stutter to choose to avoid speaking in certain situations, they’re still able to.

Selective mutism is the complete inability to speak in certain situations, even if your child’s speech and communication skills are typical in other situations.

However, keep in mind that it’s possible for your child to stutter and also have selective mutism at the same time.

RELATED: Speech Therapy For Stuttering

Poor Parenting

As a parent, you may worry that you’re responsible for your child’s selective mutism.

However, this may only be the case in instances of extreme childhood trauma, abuse, or neglect.

There’s no evidence that different parenting styles cause selective mutism.

How Can Speech Therapy Help With Selective Mutism?

When it comes to selective mutism, it may be beneficial for your child to see both a speech therapist and a psychologist.

This is so that they can determine the psychological factors affecting your child’s speech.

A speech therapist will assess your child’s speech and language abilities.

They will then develop a treatment plan to help your child become more comfortable speaking in any situation.

This can boost your child’s confidence and communication ability, which may also improve their mental health.

If your child is having difficulty communicating with a speech therapist, our speech therapy clinic also offers online speech therapy services.

This way your child can speak to a therapist from the comfort of their own home.

Speech therapy for selective mutism is aimed at changing your child’s behavior in situations that trigger their mutism as well as improving their speech and language skills.

Some strategies a speech therapist may use can include:

• Shaping (praising your child’s communication efforts)
• Stimulus fading (slowly introducing new environmental factors)
• Self modeling technique (having your child listen to themselves speak)
• Practicing speaking more clearly
• Practicing saying words more loudly
• Encouraging your child to communicate more

Book Your Appointment With Our Speech Therapy Clinic Today

If your child has selective mutism, or you believe that they might, we can help.

The earlier your child starts speech therapy, the better chances they have to overcome their difficulties and communicate more effectively.

At District Speech and Language Therapy, we’ll work with your child to address their selective mutism and any underlying conditions that impact their speech to improve their speech and communication abilities.

Book your appointment with District Speech and Language Therapy today, to get started.