Selective Mutism - Causes

Causes

Selective mutism can be caused by shyness and/or social anxiety in some people. Some shy or socially anxious people feel uncomfortable talking to certain people.

Most children with selective mutism are believed to have an inherited predisposition to anxiety. They often have inhibited temperaments, which is hypothesized to be the result of over-excitability of the area of the brain called the amygdala. This area receives indications of possible threats and sets off the fight-or-flight response.

Some children with selective mutism may have sensory integration dysfunction (trouble processing some sensory information). This would cause anxiety and a sense of being overwhelmed in unfamiliar situations, which may cause the child to "shut down" and not be able to speak (something that some autistic people also experience). Many children with SM have some auditory processing difficulties.

About 20–30% of children with SM have speech or language disorders that add stress to situations in which the child is expected to speak.

Despite the change of name from "elective" to "selective", a common misconception remains that a selectively mute child is defiant or stubborn. In fact, children with SM have a lower rate of oppositional behavior than their peers in a school setting. Another common belief is that selectively mute children have experienced abuse or trauma. A study of six adults who were selectively mute as children suggests that those with selective mutism are more likely to have suffered abuse, which may contribute to the onset of their mutism. The interviewees also said that there was a conscious determination not to speak and that they were afraid of speaking, indicating that both choice and fear may be involved in selective mutism. Only two of the interviewees specifically reported childhood social anxiety, and those were twins. Other anxiety and emotional problems seemed to have appeared after the onset of the disorder. This study shows that selective mutism may be more complex than currently believed, with both past and current understandings of the disorder both being partly true.

In their book Adoption Detective: Memoir of an Adopted Child, Judith and Martin Land mention how selective mutism, extreme shyness, and other social anxiety disorders can be evidence of trauma frequently associated with adoption, especially in children under three years old. Selective mutism might be highly functional for a child by reducing anxiety and protecting the child from perceived challenges of social interaction, particularly in situations with high performance expectations, such as school. Adoptees with this anxiety might be highly talkative at home with family and friends, but avoid speaking altogether in classrooms, large groups, and social functions. Adoptees with selective mutism likely have difficulty verbalizing personal thoughts when they are excessively revealing and painful or of a subconscious nature.