Selective Mutism in Children

Manifestations, Diagnosis, Therapy

Nitza Katz-Bernstein (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

243 Seiten

2026 | 6th updated Auflage
Ernst Reinhardt Verlag
978-3-497-03356-0 (ISBN)

Infos

Why does the girl not speak in kindergarten? Why does the boy remain silent during school? Selectively mute children have the ability to speak, but choose not to use it in unfamiliar situations or in the communication with certain people. A conversation with these children is often not possible at all or only via gestures or written messages. Nitza Katz-Bernstein elaborates in her book on the symptoms of this dysfunction and explains the diagnostics and different therapies. She takes into consideration therapeutic elements from various disciplines such as speech therapy, as well as different schools of child and adolescent psychotherapy.

Inhalt

Content
A Brief History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Part I Theoretical Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1 What is (Selective) Mutism?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.1 Definition and Manifestation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.2 Diagnostic Criteria. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1.3 Types of Mutism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.4 Epidemiology, Co-Morbidity and Risk Factors . . . . . . . . . . . 28
1.5 A Contribution to Aetiology: Why Are Children Silent?
The Failure to Overcome Unfamiliarity. 33
2 Linguistic and Developmental-Psychological Approaches -
How Speaking and (Selective) Silence Develop . 36
2.1 Why a Developmental-Psychological Approach?. . . . . . . . . . 36
2.2 Language Acquisition and Language Development -
Social-Interactive Position . 38
2.2.1 Communication and Dialogue Structures - How Is Communication Learned? . 39
2.2.2 Triangular Processes - Being Able to Deal with Requirements. 43
2.2.3 Internal Mental Representation -
The Power of Imagination and Evaluation . 47
2.2.4 Symbolisation and Narrative Organisation -
Acquisition of Narrative Skills. 50
2.2.5 Separation of Internal and External Dialogue - Conversation Strategies. 53
2.2.6 Internalised Values - Regulating Behaviour (= Mentalising) . 55
2.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Part II Diagnostics and Therapy Coordination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
1 Diagnostic Surveys - How Can (Selective) Mutism be Recorded?. 60
2 Setting and Case Management - Who, What, Where, When and What for?. 65
3 Survey of Data Relevant to Therapy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Part III Therapeutic Approaches and Efficacious Treatments. . . . . 79
1 Therapeutic Attitude. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
1.1 Exert Pressure or Use Laissez Faire? -
Planning the Therapeutic Relationship as a "Scaffolding" Principle. 81
1.2 Relationship Design and Motivation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
1.3 Models, Techniques, Training Programmes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
1.4 Integrative Principles for Therapeutic Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
2 Therapy Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
2.1 Clarification of the Tasks of the Treatment -
Dealing with Ambiguous Messages. 91
2.2 Separation from Attachment Figures -
Mum Waits Outside!. 95
2.3 Safe Place -
The Safe Place as a Starting Point . 99
2.4 Strengthening the "Alter Ego" - "Prove to Me that I'm Okay the Way I Am!". 105
2.5 Perseverance - Working without Response. 109
Part IV Communicating Non-Verbally. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
1 Constructing Communicative Behaviour - "Turn-taking". 112
2 Working with Puppets and Transitional Objects - A Hut for the Bear . 114
3 The Fairytale Book with Speech Bubbles - "Howl, Boom, Sigh ...". 118
4 Language Therapies - Building Language without Speaking. 121
5 Symbolisation and Narrative Processing - Narration without Language. 125
5.1 The Symbolic Game as Therapeutic Intervention. . . . . . . . . . 125
5.2 The Relevance of Symbolic Play in Therapy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
5.3 The Therapeutic Role in Symbolic Play. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5.4 Digression: Developmental Diagnosis of Symbolic Play . . . .

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 19.1.2026
• Übersetzer: Terry Moston, Harriet Rössger
• Zusatzinfo: 2 Abb. 6 Tab.
• Verlagsort: München
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 150 x 230 mm
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Gesundheitsfachberufe ► Logopädie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik ► Sonder-, Heil- und Förderpädagogik
• Schlagworte: building verbal communication • Case Report • Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy • communicative behaviour • conversation strategies • developmental psychological approaches • Diagnostic criteria • Language acquisition • language therapies • Manifestation • Mute Child • Selevtively mute children • silent child • Speech therapy • symbolic play • therapeutic approches • types of mutism • Verbal communication
• ISBN-10: 3-497-03356-1 / 3497033561
• ISBN-13: 978-3-497-03356-0 / 9783497033560
• Zustand: Neuware