Selective Mutism Research Paper

During my high school career I was able to make lots of friendships, but had few close friendships. I was unable to have a large amount of girlfriends, because I did not feel a good connection with them. Instead, I hung out with a group of guys and had two girlfriends who had similar life stories. When I was sixteen I started working and that was something I enjoyed doing to make money. Once high school was over I felt like I had so much to look forward to. When college came around I didn’t see the same people every day and had to make new friends here at Anderson. This was challenging for me, because the dorms are full of females which was something that I have not been used to.

Communicating with children and young adults who have communication differences should be approached with care and sensitivity. Some children may find it hard to make friends due to being anxious or have a lack of confidence in speaking out to others; they may have a speech disorder, stammer or a condition which creates communication a problem. How we communicate with children or young adults is by giving them time to think of their answer, let them reply in their own time, and not speak for them or answer the question for them.

You had great difficulty expressing yourself properly, leading to your current predicament: social isolation. You often made a conscious effort to avoid conversation in case your voice refused to respond or you stumble upon your words or if you sounded utterly stupid, but you put the same amount of effort to make sure you could hide your loneliness with plastered smiles and the "I’m fine" lie you repeat endlessly.

I was able to make friends easily by applying my interpersonal skills amongst others. This included joining societies as well as, using my communication skills during my seminar group work discussions, where I demonstrated my teamwork skills by co-operating with others during a shared task. Working with others is a vital skill, as I did not only collaborate with them, but learn from them by listening to their thoughts, as we all had diverse ideas and perspectives. This point leads back to my anxiety of interacting within a new environment, which allowed me to step out of my comfort zone and, associate with people from different backgrounds.

best to hang onto my friends form my old school. Soon, it became harder and

Junior year was the year that I was elected at Konawaena High School's Student Body Corresponding Secretary and the junior class Vice President. With these two major responsibilities, I found it difficult to balance the duties of an officer, school assignments, and having a job. I found myself prioritizing my roles as an officer over my school work, which you can only imagine did not work out so well. Throughout the school year I realized that I almost became a zealot about student activities, and this is where things in my social life went wrong, or so I thought. Friends of mine since the very beginning starred to become nothing but familiar faces, and soon enough, nothing but memories. I then began looking at the priorities of my "friends" and the priorities that I had for myself. They did not seem to match up. I soon found myself with a new group of people on

The school year approached its end. Another summer to spend alone by myself. The cycle had been repeating since I was in grade school. Sadness choked me as I returned home and shut my door. Every year, the resolution was the same: I would try to make friends next year; however, every year, I felt myself falling back down into the same trap. By the time high school began, I no longer felt the numb sensation of sadness or the flow of tears as the final day of May became the last day I talked with my “friends.” I no longer expected to make any friends, or, more accurately, I no longer expected to be able to make any friends. The sheer possibility of befriending an individual appeared to me as foreign as speaking in latin. When I walked into school, what should have been a site of chatter, opportunity, and growth appeared to me as a form of imprisonment and torture; however, unbeknownst to me, I did have friends; something of which I did not recognize until years passed by. I grown attached to certain conversations; there were times where I felt the need to initiate a conversation rather than waiting for someone else to make one. It was not until one of my friends told me,”We’re your friends aren’t we?” when I realized I was not longer

Being able to express and communicate your feelings, is easier said than done. With my condition I often find myself frustrated or depressed,

Hesselman coined the term “selective mutism” in 1983 to describe the disorder previously called “aphasia voluntaria, elective mutism, speech phobia, psychological mutism, and hearing mute” among fourteen other historic terms (Dow, Freeman, Garcia, Leonard, & Miller, 2004; Kearney, 2010). The American Psychiatric Association, or APA, characterizes selective mutism by a “persistent failure to speak in specific social situations where speech is expected, despite speaking in other situations.” Selective mutism shifted in recent years from being viewed as a response to trauma sustained early in life to a manifestation of an anxiety disorder (Dow et al, 2004). This paper briefly covers all aspects of selective mutism from signs and symptoms to

All my life, I have suffered from generalized anxiety disorder, which can make it difficult to do mundane tasks and educational requirements. For example, giving speeches, taking exams and quizzes, and having to communicate with other students that I do not know. I have been sheltered most of my life, which causes things that would be considered basic to other people to scare me. After analyzing my anxious tendencies, I came to the conclusion that the root of my anxiety comes from having seperation anxiety from my Mother after my Father passed away, which made me scared to talk to people, resulting in speech anxiety. My main fear with my speech anxiety is that I will receive a bad grade on my speech or not do well enough academically. I strive

In order to effectively support the Selective Mutism child, there is a need to provide classroom support, along with, awareness of the disorder of parents, school psychologist and teahers Through training programs. Selective Mutsim children refuse to verbally participate with the teacher and peers in the classroom. Consequently, when teachers try to interact with the SM child difficulties for the teacher and child arise. In fact, not only does the disorder make it difficult for child as well as the teacher, but it affects the SM child’s peer interactions, academic progress and prevent teachers from educatining the SM child. Furthermore, the SM child does not have a language comprehension problem and communicates in the home in a normal fashion(Laimbock,

Seung Hui Cho the Virginia Tech shooter suffered from selective mutism, according to a The Washington Post article, “Unknown to Va. Tech, Cho Had a Disorder.” Selective mutism is the inability to speak in specific situations or to specific people, due to social anxiety. Even before Cho was a student at Virginia Tech he was diagnosed with this severe anxiety disorder, by the public-school system. Cho was placed in special education to help with the disorder, a fact that was never reported to Virginia Tech. While in special education Cho learned to speak openly about his fears associated with the anxiety. Once he was out of public- school, Cho did not seek out continuing help for his condition. Cho exhibited many different disturbing behaviors

Moving schools all of the time made it hard for me to make friends and be social with my peers. After moving to Ohio I learned how to be myself, and I learned how to make friends who had the same interests. On the first day of school in fifth grade a pretty blonde girl sat behind me. I was curious as to who she was because I had never seen her before; I turned around and introduced myself. From that little interaction we became best friends and are still pretty good friends to this day. Living in a small town has taught me how to better interact with people and making new friends. I know that when I go off on my own to college that I will have no problem with this. Meeting new people and forming relationships will come naturally to me all because I have had the experience of living in a small town where you have a relationship with everybody you know.

Tonka Truck rear-ends another Tonka Truck and within two minutes of sandbox hit and runs a new friend is made. The same cannot be said of High school. Those friends you made in elementary are still your friends when you first enter into high school. But slowly they drift off into the abyss, slipping into with different cliques and before you know it, you are put on the backburner. You feel forced, worried and are fairly sure that rear-ending a grads car will not work. This is yet another perfect example of change, that anyone that’s ever been to high school has probably faced. Accepting this sort adjustment will teach you new skills, and a lot about yourself. Making new friends can be hard or easy, depending on how you tackle the problem. Change is simply a tool, it is you who decides what to make with it.

Selective mutism psychological disorder that is a lack of ability to speak or interconnect with people .Usually appearing Pre-K students between 3 and 5 years when they go to school . Mostly, parents understand their kids SM (selective mutism) when they go to school because SM kids generally they are fine with their family, however, they can’t speak in certain situations such as in the classroom.