Welcome

Our daughter, Stevie, has been diagnosed with Selective Mutism (SM).

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.

From www.selectivemutismcenter.org

I am starting this blog for a couple reasons.

1. To keep you updated on where we are and how Stevie is progressing.
2. So that I can have a place to process and share with other families who may be experiencing what we are.

Stevie has always been super shy around new people and in public. Things began escalating the fall of 2018 when she was in Mother’s Day Out. We found out very late into the school year that she wasn’t speaking at all at school. In the spring of 2019 the group of people she would talk to began to shrink. She stopped speaking to friends at church, extended family, and everything culminated with her not speaking to Aubrey and me in July.

At this point she hadn’t been speaking to Aubrey for a week. She was still talking to me, but that went away within the next few days. We began to reach out to other parents for advice. No one had heard of anything like it. Friends began reaching out to their community and we got a lead with “Sounds like it might be selective mutism” from a friend of a friend of a friend.

It was a Thursday evening when I first saw the words “selective mutism” and I dove deep into the internet doing research. It became clear that was probably what we were dealing with. Thankfully we already had a Dr.’s appointment for the coming Monday with her pediatrician. We survived the weekend and saw the Dr. first thing Monday morning. He confirmed that it sounded right and referred us to a psychologist. We saw the Psychologist that following Friday who officially confirmed the diagnosis.

Stevie is an extreme case, because as the definition above states, most kids will talk in comfortable environments, which is how she has always been at home. Its not unheard of for kids to lose words at home and with immediate family, but it does make it a more extreme case.

It has been 3 weeks since we lost communication with her and it has been so hard. We have seen small steps of progress with her at home and that is our first priority right now – to re-open communication with us.

The good news is this is treatable.

The bad news is there is not a quick fix.

This is potentially a very long term issue that we will be working through with her. As friends and family, I know this will be difficult for you as well at times. It is heartbreaking for us to not hear our sweet girl’s voice, and we know it is for you as well. We are so thankful for the community that we have to journey through this with us. More posts to come, but thanks for taking time to read about what we are walking into and how you can be a part of it.

All our love.