Selective Mutism

Before participating in a movement program, the 8 1⁄2-year-old student who drew these pictures struggled with selective mutism. With regular rhythmic movement, this student’s strides amazed her speech therapist: She now reads aloud in class and joined her school’s Drama Club. Drawings submitted by Nina Gallwey, educator.Selective mutism is considered an anxiety disorder (Driessen et al., 2020), and in particular, a social anxiety disorder (Muris & Ollendick, 2021).

Often parents of children with selective mutism can sense a child's intense anxiety during social situations. But it is challenging to know where the anxiety comes from. Researchers have characterized selective mutism as a stress reaction whereby the nervous system freezes, rendering the individual unable to speak in some situations, even though they speak easily in other situations (Melfsen et al., 2021).

Is the Fear Paralysis Reflex at the Root of Selective Mutism?

It may be that an underlying Fear Paralysis Reflex is active when a child is unable to produce speech in certain situations. The Fear Paralysis Reflex is a primitive freeze response to perceived threats or fearful situations. Thankfully, we can use targeted movements to release the grip of this primitive reflex to unlock speech for children with selective mutism. 

Selective mutism is associated not only with anxiety, but also with "sensory-processing sensitivities" which were found to be significantly higher in children with selective mutism than in a group of control children with no selective mutism (Melfsen et al., 2021).

Find out how this mother used rhythmic movements and primitive reflex integration activities from the Brain and Sensory Foundations course to help her 8 year old daughter overcome selective mutism and severe behaviors.

When viewed from the lens of development, it appears that selective mutism is associated with delayed maturation of the nervous system and sensory systems. Both nervous and sensory systems are matured by the action of neurodevelopmental movements—the movements of infancy including primitive reflexes, postural reflexes, rhythmic movements, and developmental movements. See how neurodevelopmental movements help with both anxiety and sensory disorders.

References

Driessen, J., Blom, J. D., Muris, P., Blashfield, R. K., & Molendijk, M. L. (2020). Anxiety in children with selective mutism: a meta-analysis. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 51, 330-341.

Melfsen, S., Romanos, M., Jans, T., & Walitza, S. (2021). Betrayed by the nervous system: a comparison group study to investigate the ‘unsafe world’model of selective mutism. Journal of Neural Transmission, 128(9), 1433-1443.

Muris, P., & Ollendick, T. H. (2021). Selective mutism and its relations to social anxiety disorder and autism spectrum disorder. Clinical child and family psychology review, 24(2), 294-325.