Selective mutism
anxiety disorder causing inability to speak under certain circumstances
In psychiatry, selective mutism (SM) is an anxiety disorder in which a person who is otherwise capable of speech becomes emotionally overwhelmed and does not speak when exposed to specific situations, specific places, or to specific people, one or multiple of which serve as triggers. This kind of mutism usually co-exists with social anxiety disorder. People with selective mutism may stay silent even when the consequences of their silence include shame, social ostracism, or punishment. In some cases, the affected person wants to speak, but feel like they can not get the words out.
Signs and symptoms
The DSM-5 describes selective mutism as a persistent difficulty with speaking in specific social settings where speech is expected, such as in school, despite an ability to speak in other situations. The symptoms should not be too temporary and they must affect the person's ability to perform in a certain situation. Consideration should be given to possible other diagnoses.
Children and adults with selective mutism are fully capable of speech and understanding language but may be completely unable to speak in certain situations, even if speech is expected of them. This behaviour may be perceived as shyness for some or rudeness by others. A child with selective mutism may be completely silent at school for years but speak quite freely or even excessively at home.
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This entry incorporates text from “Selective mutism” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.