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How Do You Treat Selective Mutism?
This post will answer the following questions and talk about the following points: Is treating selective mutism hard? Is selective mutism rare? How do you treat selective mutism? Is selective mutism a speech disorder? Behavioral approach to treat selective mutism. Cognitive-behavioral approach to treat selective mutism. Pharmacological approach to treat selective mutism. Family therapy approach to treat selective mutism. The treatment of many diseases and conditions such as heart disease, cancer, depression is currently robust and serious because of two main reasons: there is extensive research happening in these fields and technological advancement as a result, there is a massive growth in awareness about these illnesses and how they impact…
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Is Selective Mutism a Disability?
This post will talk about: According to CDC, disability is “any condition of the body or mind (impairment) that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities (activity limitation) and interact with the world around them (participation restrictions).” Among the disabilities, there are categories that identify the area affected by the disability, such as: Let’s look at the definition of selective mutism disorder to help identify the answer to the question of whether selective mutism is a disability. Selective mutism is “a complex childhood anxiety disorder characterized by a child’s inability to speak and communicate effectively in select social settings, such as school. These children are…
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What Are The Causes of Selective Mutism?
In this post, you will learn about: the three causes of selective mutism, what parents should NOT think about, what parents should focus on. When my child was diagnosed with selective mutism, my first question was WHY. Like with any “regular” illness, one may try to find the possible explanation and trackback to the event that caused all the mess. However, the unfortunate thing about a selective mutism anxiety disorder is that the causes are unknown; they are still being studied. Finally, there may be multiple causes combined rather than one particular trigger that sets selective mutism. In general, literature on selective mutism talks about three categories that the causes…
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Diagnosis of Selective Mutism: Simple Parent Guide and Steps to Take.
In this post, you will learn about: the steps towards the diagnosis of selective mutism some of the symptoms and behaviors of children with selective mutism the diagnostic criteria for selective mutism Before my child was diagnosed with selective mutism, I saw nothing as a warning sign, let alone I knew that selective mutism anxiety disorder even existed. In retrospect, it is possible now to pinpoint many observations that allow me to evaluate my child’s behaviors patterns and health profile against the diagnostic criteria that would point to her having selective mutism. These are some of the behaviors my daughter displayed consistently before she received a diagnosis of selective mutism:…
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What Is Selective Mutism?
Selective mutism is “a complex childhood anxiety disorder characterized by a child’s inability to speak and communicate effectively in select social settings, such as school. These children are able to speak and communicate in settings where they are comfortable, secure, and relaxed”, according to Dr. E. Shipon-Blum from Selective Mutism, Anxiety & Related Disorders Treatment Center. Selective Mutism Association characterizes children affected by selective mutism as being able to”...understand language use and, although they have the physical and cognitive ability to speak, they demonstrate a persistent inability to speak in particular settings over a particular period of time due to anxiety.“ Commonly, a child with selective mutism may appear “shy.” However, while shyness is…
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Tips for Self-Care: How One Teacher Doesn’t Have it All.
Self-care Sunday tips don’t work for me. I’m a teacher. I work Saturdays and Sundays to make sure that my week goes well, with no stress, self-pity, and self-imposed exhaustion. I searched dozens of self-care activities, practices, and lists. Too many of them either did not match my lifestyle or did not consider that I also have kids. Despite my skepticism for many of the self-care procedures, rituals, and self-care deficit, I do believe in the transformational power of self-care habits. In this post, I’m sharing self-care examples to convey the idea that instead of following self-care lists, we should try to build self-care habits however unconventional, inconvenient, and impossible…
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What Mindfulness Is In a Classroom: Must-Have Activities.
When I think of what mindfulness is in a classroom, I think of the place where students are driven by their own goals and interests, are in charge of the creative space, believe and know they can tackle difficult things, support each other, and grow physically and emotionally. Mindfulness is that classroom vibe where a teacher facilitates, not dictates. Mindfulness is taking mental pauses and breaks for a teacher and students when the day gets tough. Mindfulness is being aware of the limitations and the possibilities for students and a teacher. Mindfulness is challenging the limitations and attempting bigger things following small, consistent steps. In fact, it’s pretty hard to…
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Selective Mutism: How to Beat Crisis, Screaming, Fear.
Where do I start to share the story of selective mutism with you and how it has framed the past three years of our lives? Since my daughter was diagnosed with selective mutism at the age of 4, I’ve been a curious fighter, a mom-protector with the purpose to share my struggles and the knowledge about selective mutism with other families. There is power in knowing your enemy, or this is at least how I felt about selective mutism when the search for answers started in 2018. My initial enthusiasm to know-it-all would lead me to various selective mutism Facebook groups where I hoped to find the “remedy” and, maybe,…
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How to Use Get To Know You Questions to Build Self-Awareness.
When a new school year begins, get to know you questions and activities become a prerequisite for building a strong classroom community. Even though it might seem unnecessary to spend time on get to know you questions and worksheets, the opposite is true. By being engaged with get to know you questions and activities, students develop strong bonds and robust connections and establish their place in and belonging to a social group. A teacher can design get to know you questions for purposeful communication in a classroom to teach various vital goals, such as allowing students to: talk about their interests discover their values reaffirm their strengths. Through simple but…
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What Is Self-Awareness and How To Teach It?
What’s Self-Awareness? Growing emotionally, academically, and professionally from early ages and later in life is necessitated by the present-day world’s demands for strong social skills, emotional IQ, decision-making, deep thinking, and rethinking. Self-awareness, unlike other SEL competencies, has been taken on seriously because by nurturing self-awareness, we can identify our limitations and capabilities. Multiple self-awareness definitions testify to the inherent complexity of the construct. Because the self-awareness construct is hard to capture, measure, or detect, there is plenty of definitions for self-awareness depending on the field (ex. psychology vs. education) and the medium that presents the information (blogs vs. scientific articles vs. dictionary). According to the APA Dictionary of Phycology, self-awareness is “self-focused attention…
