It is a need to learn why one isn’t able to speak at times. One case is selective mutism.
Selective Mutism is a psychological condition associated with consistently not being able to speak in a social situation in which the person is expected to speak back. This more likely affects young children than adolescents or adults alike although incredibly rare for the people diagnosed with this selective mutism ranging from 0.3% to 1% depending on a specific setting.
The common criteria used to diagnose such condition are consistent failure to socialize in a situation, a disturbance that interrupts or bothers the educational achievement, occupation achievement, and socialization, the duration of having this condition must be at least a month, the reason for not being able to speak must not be because of not knowing what is being talked about, or inability to speak the language, and disturbance that is not explained by communication disorders such as childhood-onset fluency disorder.
This affects the child in terms of education and relationships with people due to the inability to speak in social situations. The surrounding environment especially in education is impairment when it comes to learning and assessment of necessary skills such as reading or writing. In general relationships, a person diagnosed with selective mutism can suffer from social isolation due to its characteristics. Common factors to consider in a patient are the environmental, temperamental, or genetic and physiological factors to diagnose selective mutism clearly.
Selective mutism can have differential diagnoses such as communication disorders, neurodevelopmental disorders, schizophrenia, psychotic disorders, or social anxiety disorder (social phobia) that has similar symptoms. Keep in mind, selective mutism and social anxiety disorder are two different anxiety disorders however they both can share the same symptoms and can both be connected to each other.
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