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Selective Mutism Case Study

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Selective Mutism is the anxiety disorder where someone who has the ability to speak well is unable to in certain situations or they are even unable to speak to certain people. Due to SM being a socially induced anxiety disorder, it would typically be treated with social interaction such as therapy, or even in some cases with medication. In addition to those treatments, integration of teacher and parents along with behavior modifications have also been methods of treating SM. The types of therapy that patients would be treated with would be group therapy, individual therapy, and even therapy involving parents. For example an approach by Louise Sharkey, Fiona Mc Nicholas, Edwina Barry, Maire Begley and Sinead Ahern (2008), had children with …show more content…

The children along with their parents (mothers) were trained on how to handle SM and they were assed before and after the treatment took place. In a similar approach by Sharkey et al. (2008) children with SM attended group therapy sessions while their parents simultaneously attended educational sessions that were meant to provide the parents with information on how to better handle their child’s SM. However this specific approach involved both medical and non-medical methods of treatment for children with SM. Even further, the results of both the treatment approaches varied differently. The Sharkey et al. treatment showed that the group therapy along with the parental education of how to help their children showed very good results: all of the children felt more confident in speaking at school, and the parents reported lowered anxiety in helping their children. On the other hand the treatment done by Manassis and Tannock (2008) showed promising results through medical treatment. The medicine used, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, showed better improvement in functioning with their speech in all …show more content…

L., Gonzalez, A., Piacentini, J., & Keller, M. L. (2013). Integrated behavior therapy for selective mutism: A randomized controlled pilot study. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 51(10), 680-689.
Manassis, K., & Tannock, R. (2008). Comparing interventions for selective mutism: A pilot study. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 53(10), 700-703.
O’Reilly, M., McNally, D., Sigafoos, J., Lancioni, G. E., Green, V., Edrisinha, C., Machalicek, W., … Didden, R. (2008). Examination of a social problem-solving intervention to treat selective mutism. Behavior Modification, 32(2), 182-195.
Sharkey, L., McNicholas, F., Barry, E., Begley, M., & Ahern, S. (2008). Group therapy for selective mustim: A parents’ and children’s treatment group. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 39(4), 538-545.
Sloan, T. L. (2007). Family therapy with selectively mute children: A case study. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 33(1).

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