The Center for Practical Child and Adolescent Therapy Techniques

Dr. David A. Crenshaw, Director  

NEWS Upcoming Presentations (click)

"Heartfelt Feelings" Coloring Card Strategy.  Click here for details.                 

Read Dr. Crenshaw's articles in Play Therapy magazine by clicking on title: "Should I Be Worried?"  "Selective Mutism" "Preverbal Trauma" "No Time or Place for Child's Play" reprinted with permission of Play Therapy Magazine.

All books are now available at discounted prices in paperback. To order click on the book images below or simply call 1-800-462-6420.  Code # 4S6CRWEB

If you want to read reviews first, click on the book title under the book image.

Please note e-mail cannot be guaranteed to be confidential so do not send private information. Our shopping cart is through a secure connection.

You are invited to sign our Guest Book and include your special interests so we can contact you about future training programs and publications.  Your name and e-mail address are only for us to send information about your interests and will not be disclosed, disseminated, or used by anyone else.

Guidelines for Classroom Teachers Regarding Selective Mutism  

by David A. Crenshaw, Ph.D., ABPP, RPT-S

1. In a quiet, comfortable, and private setting (even better in a playful context like down on the floor with the child in the play corner) explain to the child that some children find it frightening when they first speak at school. Empathize with that fear—“It can be a little scary at first when you speak in school—but you will be able to do so when you are ready and it will get easier each time you do.”

2. Ask the child when they think they will be ready to speak in school—ask the child to write down the day of the week when they think they will speak: Monday? Tuesday? Wed.? Thurs? Friday? Also ask her/him whether they think it will be a sunny day or a cloudy day when she/he will speak. Finally, ask her/him when she/he speaks will it happen in the morning or afternoon. These questions firmly establish the expectation that the child will speak—it is a matter of when not if the child will speak.

3. Consider classroom seating arrangements that facilitate peer interactions and conversation. In addition to circle time on the floor and round table seating arrangements—it may be possible to seat next to the child with selective mutism, a child that she/he talks to outside of school, a regular playmate of the child.

4. Cultivate an individual relationship with the child by asking the child if she/he would remain behind a few minutes to help the teacher with some kind of errand, collecting or arranging things in the classroom.

5. Consider inviting the parents or an older sibling to come into the classroom to initiate conversation in a quiet area to “practice reading” or “to do math problems” as a way of desensitizing the child to speaking in the classroom.

6. Avoid at all costs putting the child “on the spot” where there is a demand for the child to speak. This almost never works out.

7. Also do not allow other students to pressure the child to speak.

8. The emphasis rather should be on creating relaxed, playful, comfortable, interpersonal contexts that makes it simply natural for the child to speak.

9. Should the child speak try not to react in a way that puts the spotlight on the child. The least attention paid the better because if a lot of attention is focused on the child speaking, it will almost always cause them to shut-down.

10. Redirect the other children if they make a big deal about the child speaking. The teacher can simply say, “We always knew that _________ would speak when she/he was ready. Not let’s get back to spelling.”

Copyright © 2008 by David A. Crenshaw, Ph.D., ABPP.  All rights reserved.