Selective Mutism at School: When a Child Talks at Home but Can't Speak in the Classroom

At home, she tells stories, invents characters, discusses the rules of the game and asks questions during dinner. Your family knows your voice, your opinions and your sense of humor well.

At school, the teacher asks your name. The child looks, remains motionless and does not respond. In the conversation circle, he follows his colleagues in silence. When you need help, you can wait quietly until someone notices.

The family is surprised: “But at home she talks all the time!”

The teacher also: “Here, we still can’t hear her.”

Both observations may be entirely true. This striking difference between environments deserves careful investigation and may be related to the selective mutism.

What does selective mutism mean?

Selective mutism is an anxiety disorder characterized by persistent difficulty speaking in certain social situations — such as school or in front of less familiar people —, despite the child being able to speak normally in other contexts, usually at home with close family members (ASHA; NHS).

The word “selective” describes precisely this variation between contexts; she doesn't mean that the child has consciously chosen to remain silent or is refusing to speak out of opposition, as clarified by the British public health service (NHS).

The difficulty may appear in front of a teacher, a group of colleagues or the expectation of responding in public. Some children can talk quietly to a specific friend on the playground and immediately silence themselves when an adult approaches. Others can only whisper, point or say a few isolated words.

A Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) highlights a key point for educators: not all children with selective mutism appear visibly scared or tearful. A neutral, immobile or apparently calm facial expression can coexist with intense anxiety and great difficulty speaking. Therefore, we should not require children to demonstrate distress in a stereotypical way in order to take their experience seriously (ABCT).

Recommended Reading: Understand how anxiety can manifest itself in the school environment in our article Child Anxiety: Silent Signs at School and How to Help.

When silence deserves closer investigation

Arriving in an unfamiliar class and needing some time to settle in and gain confidence is not enough, in itself, to characterize selective mutism. What deserves clinical and pedagogical attention is the persistence of the difficulty and its real interference in communication, social participation and school life.

The American Speech, Language and Hearing Association (ASHA), based on the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-5-TR, highlights that the condition must last at least a month (not limited to the first month of adaptation at school) and cause significant damage to educational or social functioning. Furthermore, the absence of speech cannot be explained solely by lack of knowledge or lack of comfort with the language spoken at school. It is worth remembering that this one-month period guides the formal diagnostic closure, but pedagogical support can — and should — begin as soon as the need is perceived (ASHA).

In schools that receive migrant, bilingual or multilingual children, this distinction requires increased sensitivity: we need to know the opportunities for use and the child's familiarity with each language before interpreting their silence (ASHA).

The specialized assessment also investigates language development, hearing, global developmental history and anxiety levels. It is important to highlight that selective mutism and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are distinct conditions, although they can coexist in some cases; silence in the classroom, alone, does not allow any of them to be completed without careful assessment (ASHA; NHS).

What the school needs to see beyond the absence of speech

The service’s clinical guide Children and Family Health Devon, from the NHS in the United Kingdom (CFHD), draws attention to very concrete difficulties experienced in everyday school life: asking for water, requesting trips to the bathroom, reporting physical discomfort and asking for help with a task. The document also notes that, at higher levels of anxiety, even gestures and written responses may become temporarily difficult for some children (CFHD).

Therefore, observing only whether the student responded verbally to the call offers a very restricted view of the problem. To build a sensitive psychopedagogical perspective, it is worth asking:

• Is he able to signal in some way when he did not understand an activity?
• Is there an accessible and agreed-upon way to communicate pain, thirst or discomfort?
• Do you participate in games in the courtyard and collective work?
• With whom, in which space and in which situations does communication happen most easily?

These questions help build a truly useful teaching record. Just write down “the student does not participate” It is a vague description that does little to guide intervention. Already register that “the student solves the activity in writing carefully, but is unable to explain his answer orally in front of the class” reveals an essential difference that needs to be understood by the team.

“A silent child should not become a forgotten child.”

Reflection on Inclusion: Learn more about caring for silent students in the classroom in the article The Illusion of Presence: When School Inclusion is Just Invisibility.

How to welcome without turning every encounter into a test

Ireland's public health service (HSE, 2024) recommends reducing pressure to speak, accepting other forms of response, and establishing safe interactions through welcoming comments and shared activities. It also advises avoiding criticism, demands, blackmail or even effusive public praise that puts the child at the center of attention and could embarrass him when he finally speaks (HSE, 2024).

In pedagogical practice, we can replace a battery of direct questions with a calmer and more descriptive approach. During a drawing activity, for example, instead of insisting on "What is that? What color is that? Aren't you going to tell me?", the adult can simply comment next to it:

“You put a lot of detail into this house.”

The comment demonstrates presence and genuine interest in the child's work without turning the interaction into an oral exam.

If the child responds spontaneously — whether with a gesture, a word or a phrase — the educator can follow the subject completely naturally. The class does not need to stop for everyone to notice that achievement; naturalness protects the emotional security of those who are starting to take risks.

Participation and basic needs need accessible paths

The service’s educational guidelines Just One Norfolk, linked to the NHS (Just One Norfolk), include accepting responses through gestures or writing, using visual resources to communicate basic needs and making adjustments to assessment activities. These paths must be chosen and combined according to what the child can effectively use at that moment (Just One Norfolk).

A visual card on the table to ask for help or go to the bathroom, for example, will only fulfill its function if the child is able to show it without embarrassment and if adults are attentive enough to respond. Handing over the card and waiting indefinitely without mediation does not constitute follow-up.

As a daily pedagogical application, school staff can combine:

• A reference adult with whom the child already demonstrates greater comfort in situations of need;
• A discreet and predictable way requesting a bathroom, water or assistance with the task;
• Brief, predictable moments throughout the class to individually check how the child is doing;
• Careful ways of integration in activities in pairs or small groups with colleagues with whom she has greater affinity.

These agreements also need to reach professionals who monitor the playground, cafeteria, physical education and other spaces at the school. The possibility of communicating a basic need cannot depend on the luck of finding a single teacher.

How to assess learning more fairly

Imagine a pedagogical activity whose central objective is to check reading comprehension of a story. If the only accepted form of response is an oral explanation out loud in front of the class, the assessment will run the serious risk of confusing the student. content domain with the emotional possibility of speaking in that context.

For the assessment to be fair and reliable, the child can order events, associate images, respond in writing, point out alternatives or present their understanding in an individualized format, according to their current abilities.

When the pedagogical objective specifically involves observing oral language, the team needs to plan safe conditions to do so. The Norfolk Educational Guidelines (Just One Norfolk) present, among the possibilities, the use of recordings made in a quiet and comfortable environment — such as at home or in a private space —, whenever this is feasible and previously agreed with the child (Just One Norfolk).

The evaluation opinion must make clear what has already been observed and what has not yet been evaluated directly in the classroom: the absence of a public oral response never authorizes the automatic conclusion of a lack of learning.

Speech advances are built gradually

Clinical monitoring of selective mutism usually involves behavioral and cognitive-behavioral strategies, in which communication opportunities are organized into progressive levels of difficulty. A ABCT describes gradual exposure procedures that expand, step by step, the people, spaces and situations in which speech can happen (ABCT).

An illustrative possibility is to start with a comfortable playful activity with a trusted person in a calm environment and, according to therapeutic planning, gradually approach a colleague or educator. This is exactly the opposite of surprising the child with a public question into the microphone or in front of the room to “see if she can talk now”.

In a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the journal JCPP Advances, Hipolito and collaborators (Hipolito et al., 2023) found promising results and important positive effects for non-pharmacological interventions that combine behavioral strategies and active participation of the child's environments (family and school). The authors emphasize, however, that the literature still presents limitations in the quantity and methodological standardization of available studies, which is why monitoring must always be individualized and without promises of magic formulas or uniform deadlines (Hipolito et al., 2023).

Welcoming, therefore, does not mean giving up oral communication, but building possible next steps, respecting that child's rhythm and real response.

The family also needs guidance and partnership

It is perfectly understandable that parents and guardians want to know, at the end of the afternoon, whether the child was able to speak at school. Still, turning leaving class into a daily interrogation — “And today, did you speak to the teacher?” — can place even more emotional weight on the school experience.

We can broaden and sweeten this conversation by asking: “What did you enjoy playing most today?” or “Was there any cool activity or anything difficult?”. The Irish Health Service (HSE, 2024) recommends talking about the difficulty with empathy and understanding, valuing every small communication effort and sharing with the school the strategies that make the child safer (HSE, 2024).

It is also a good idea to agree in advance with the child any use of audio or videos. A recording made at home should not be shown as a surprise to the class just to prove that the child knows how to speak, as this can cause intense embarrassment and a breach of trust.

Family and school do not need to dispute which of them knows the “real child”. Each environment reveals a legitimate part of its functioning and the demands to which it is responding.

The role of psychopedagogy

In psycho-pedagogical support, the focus is on the conditions of learning and participation with special care: how the student understands proposals, solves problems, organizes their thinking, demonstrates knowledge and responds to different forms of pedagogical mediation.

This qualified observation helps the school to plan reasonable adaptations and to clearly distinguish what has already been learned from what simply could not be expressed verbally in that situation. Psychopedagogical work is part of an interdisciplinary network, linked to the assessment and clinical treatment of anxiety and communication, with the participation of Psychology, Speech Therapy, Medicine and the school team according to the identified needs.

A ASHA rightly emphasizes close collaboration between specialists, educators and families as one of the most important pillars in the successful assessment and monitoring of selective mutism (ASHA).

Related Pillar Article: Understand the connection between emotional factors and cognition in the article Mental Health from a Psychopedagogical Perspective: Impacts on Learning and Development.

Give the child space while speech finds space

A child can spend the whole day in the classroom without being able to say that they are thirsty, that they already know the answer to a question or that they would really like to join in on the playground.

The real educational work begins when we realize this distance between be physically present and be able to participate safely.

The living voice that appears freely in the living room belongs to the same child who remains silent at the school desk. Recognizing this difference should make us more attentive, welcoming and creative in relation to the communication conditions we offer every day.

While advances in speech are built step by step, the child needs to continue learning, belonging to the group and being listened to in all the ways they can already use.

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Scientific and Institutional References Consulted

1. AMERICAN SPEECH-LANGUAGE-HEARING ASSOCIATION (ASHA). Selective Mutism: Clinical Topics Practice Portal. Rockville: ASHA. Access clinical guidelines on the ASHA Practice Portal.
2. ASSOCIATION FOR BEHAVIORAL AND COGNITIVE THERAPIES (ABCT). Selective Mutism: Fact Sheet. New York: ABCT. Access clinical record at ABCT.
3. CHILDREN AND FAMILY HEALTH DEVON (NHS). Our guide to selective mutism. Devon: NHS UK. Access clinical guide on NHS Devon.
4. HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE (HSE). Supporting a child with selective mutism. Ireland: HSE, revised 29 Jan. 2024. Access official guidance from the HSE.
5. HIPOLITO, G.; PAGNAMENTA, E.; STACEY, H.; WRIGHT, E.; JOFFE, V.; MURAYAMA, K.; CRESWELL, C. A systematic review and meta-analysis of nonpharmacological interventions for children and adolescents with selective mutism. JCPP Advances, v. 3, no. 3, e12166, 2023. DOI: 10.1002/jcv2.12166. Access systematic review and meta-analysis on JCPP Advances.
6. JUST ONE NORFOLK (NHS). Selective Mutism – Neurodiversity Digital Library. Norfolk: NHS Children & Young People's Health Services. Access Just One Norfolk (NHS) digital library.
7. NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE (NHS). Selective mutism – Mental health conditions. United Kingdom: NHS. Access the official NHS UK page.