Practitioner review: Psychosocial interventions for children with selective mutism: a critical evaluation of the literature from 1990-2005.

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND:
There have been several reports of successful psychosocial interventions for children with selective mutism (SM), a disorder in which a child consistently fails to speak in one or more social settings (e.g., school) despite speaking normally in other settings (e.g., home). The present literature review was undertaken in order to provide an up-to-date summary and critique of the SM treatment literature published in the past fifteen years.

METHODS:
PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science databases were searched to identify SM treatment studies published in peer-reviewed journals between 1990 and 2005.

RESULTS:
A total of 23 studies were included in the present review. Of these, ten used a behavioral/cognitive behavioral approach, one used a behavioral language training approach, one used a family systems approach, five used a psychodynamic approach, and six used multimodal approaches to SM treatment.

CONCLUSIONS:
Although much of this literature is limited by methodological weaknesses, the existing research provides support for the use of behavioral and cognitive-behavioral interventions. Multimodal treatments also appear promising, but the essential components of these interventions have yet to be established. An outline of a cognitive-behavioral treatment package for a typical SM child is provided and the review concludes with suggestions for future research.

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Author information

Author/s: Cohan, Sharon L (SL); Chavira, Denise A (DA); Stein, Murray B (MB);

Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA. scohan(-atsign-)ucsd.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Review

Journal: Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines (J Child Psychol Psychiatry), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Nov; vol 47 (issue 11) : pp 1085-97

Dates: Created 2006/11/01; Completed 2007/02/22;

PMID: 17076747, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adolescent
Behavior Therapy - methods
Child
Child, Preschool
Cognitive Therapy - methods
Combined Modality Therapy
Family Therapy - methods
Female

Female
Humans
Male
Mutism - diagnosis; psychology; therapy
Psychoanalytic Therapy - methods
Psychotherapy - methods
Social Environment
Systems Theory

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