Selective Mutism 18 year old speech therapy

[Spotsandbows]

My son is 18 and had a late diagnosis of autism at 16. He was later diagnosed as having selective mutism by an educational psychologist. I really want to help him as this is the main thing that is affecting his life as he cannot make friends and could not go to a recent job interview due to nerves of talking. Has anyone had experience of speech and Language therapist as i was told by CAMHS that speech therapy would not be beneficial to him, but I just dont know what to do next.

I’m not sure whether this is helpful…I had selective mutism at that age due to not knowing what to say and being very immature. I improved to a degree during my twenties but I wasn’t confident at speaking and would stumble over my words and start a sentence and be unable to finish it. I found that typing on forums and Facebook somehow helped my speech. My vocabulary expanded and I found that I could type replies very quickly….somehow, either due to increased confidence or some sort of brain re-wiring it affected my speech. So you could try a two pronged approach of typing and maybe some books on how to make conversation (?).

Maybe a coach would help. Mine got me to think about what my core beliefs are. This was quite an eye opener.

I'd also really recommend some basic interview skills training. There are some books on interviews on Amazon. It's a skill but when you have it you can apply it again and again.

I don’t know what the answer is but came here to say that we’re in the same boat. Teenage son diagnosed at 16. He’s now nearly 18. Struggled big time with selective mutism causing him to burn out at school and withdraw from all friends. He’s now very isolated and unable to integrate or look for a job but we’re just taking things very slowly, giving him lots of love and support and I’m just hoping that gradually over time as he matures and his teenage anxiety lessens that he’ll find his way through this. I hope you work things out it’s such a tough thing for all the family x