Does anyone have a child with Selective Mutism?

[sunflowervalley]

My son is nearly 6 and has a Selective Mutism and speech problems.

We are currently applying for a statement for help within school.

SM is quite rare and just wondered if anyone on mumsnet has a child with SM and would share their experience and has been through the statementing process and how it went?

Have lots of literature on the subject but is always good to talk to someone first hand who is dealing with this at the moment or in the past and how it resolved itself.

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hi sunflowervalley.
my dd hasnt been dx,d with SM but we think she has it, she does have other speech problems so this could be part of it.

we tend to see it when there are people near who are unfamiliar, for instance we took her to my mums last week and she was her usual self but my sister came with her boyfriend and dd hasnt seen him that much and she wouldnt speak for the remainder of the time there and sat on my knee with her head buried on my shoulder, she does it when there are either people present that she doesnt really know or even people/children that she does know but if there are a few like at FIL,s when all the grandchildren are there she wont speak.

we are starting the statementing process off this year as she goes to nursery.

HTH

jenk1-Thanks for your reply.

My son does not speak in school classroom at all and is now moving up to yr2 in Sept.
He is an August baby so one of the younger ones as well.

Like your DD he will talk with people he is familar with but as we don't see family members that often he is normally very clingy when they visit and does not talk much ethier.

It's interesting what you said about her not talking in front of the other grandchildren.My DS is the same and I wonder if he knows he sounds different to them and therefore is worried what they will say.
He finds it easier to talk to adults.

We can be out shopping and he will be chatting away,but as soon as we see someone from his school he goes silent.

I wonder because he has speech problems he is aware that sometimes he is not understood and if this caused his SM ,although they say normally children with SM don't have speech problems.
It is a minefield really and I am still coming to grips with it all.
He does get very frustrated easily but it must be difficult as he is silent all day at school but is just to anxious to talk.

Has a SALT mentioned SM to you with regards to your DD?

I had not heard of it before DS was dx and have found it a struggle with the school as they had no experience of it ethier.
Hence the statement which hopefully will go through and give DS the professional help he needs.

My DS also has problems with toileting still and was told it can be linked to SM so we are waiting for an appointment to see a paediatrician.

Hope the statement for your DD is sucessful,we have just recently had a week of ED pyschs,medicals etc and just hope it goes through ok.