helping child acknowledge sm

7/28/2019 Helping Child Acknowledge Sm

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Helping the Child with Selective MutismAcknowledge, Assess & Understand their AnxietyBy: Dr.Elisa Shipon-Blum

Chief Executive Officer ~ Executive Medical DirectorClinical Assistant Professor Family Medicine and Psychology PCOM

The Selective Mutism Group Childhood Anxiety Network (SMG~ CAN)

[email protected] ~ 215-887-5748

In order for a child to overcome their anxiety, they must be able to ASSESS and

ACKNOWLEDGE their difficulty and inability to communicate and at the same

time, receive the understanding and support from parents, teachers, treatingprofessionals, etc.

Support and understanding begins with indicating your understanding with their

difficultly in speaking and communicating in school and other social settings.

Since the word, talk has been the focus of conversations and emphasis in regards

to the SM childs mutism, choosing other ways to convey your understanding will

help greatly. Ie, instead of using the word, talk, one can use:

Parents, teachers, treating professionals must convey that they know Focusing on

SPEAKING tends to be the norm, but in reality, letting the child know that you

understand that it may be difficult to JUST POINT to the teacher will help the childto figure out that this is indeed the case!

Ways to help the child acknowledge their communication anxiety are to use

COMMUNICATION COMFORT FEELING SCALES.

Assessing feelings on a scale of 0---5 (0 is the least uncomfortable/scary and 5 isthe MOST uncomfortable/scary)

is a wonderful way to help the child realize how they feel in a variety of situations.

The majority of children can relate to the terms, SCARY and UNCOMFORTABLE

when describing how they feel when in an anxious setting. This certainly goes alongwith feelings of social anxiety, of which over 95% of SM children suffer from.

Socially anxious individuals literally get a feeling of being utterly scared when in

particular social situations. Obviously, depending on the scenario, determines the

degree of anxiety that is experienced.

Below are examples of a communication comfort scales that were drawn by

different SM children

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(1) This chart was drawn by a 7 yr old boy.

IN this particular case, MR SUPER DUPER SCARY is how this child feels in circletime, Mr ITSY BITSY SCARY is how this child feels when driving to school. He feels

like MR. FEELS GOOD when at home and playing with his friends.

(2) This chart was drawn by an 8 yr old little girl.

This child feels like the RAINBOW when playing at recess with her friends, but feels like

the TALL, number 5 flower when at gym or sitting at circle time. She feels like a 3/5when in her small group for mathematics.

Using ideas similar to above with ALL SM children, enables the child to gain

CONTROL over their feelings.

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Assessing feelings may take time and practice. Parents, teachers, treating

professionals are encouraged to use this CHART throughout various aspects of the

childs life. Ie, When a neighbor says hello to your child or the store clerk asks how

old your child is. If your child does not respond or seems anxious in their response,

mentioning your understanding then asking them to MEASURE their feelings of

being scared will help your child GRASP the feelings concept.

Again, this method takes time and can be used as GOALS that the child canperform on an ongoing basis. Ie, for every five times your child assesses his feelings,

reward with a sticker, then after five stickers a prize or special privilege is

rewarded.

Using the SM-ICC-scale we can go through a variety of scenarios with the child to

determine their comfort in different settings and with different people.

After determining a childs comunication anxiety level, goals can be set forth, based

on the childs willingness and comfort in doing so.

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