selective mutism

[Claudio Toppelberg]

Dear Eduardo-

I don't think too much has been done in trying to understand the linguistic
profiles of SM children. This is very important as the prevalence of SM is
around .7 % in the general population and SM is of interest for language
researchers and clinicians for several important reasons:

1. SM is 3 times more common among language minority children, while cases
of more severe SM (those that extend beyond a year duration) are 14 times
more common among language minorities.
2. SM children also suffer from speech/language problems in about half of
the cases
3. SM interfers with language and literacy acquisition.
4. Last but not least, SM children don't talk!!  (...in specific social
situations...)

Trying to answer your question more specifically, Rosemary Tannock at U.
Toronto/Hospital for Sick Children and colleagues have done some language
studies on children with SM. A link to her work is
http://www.homestead.com/quietroom/Research.html

I am curious to hear what other work info-childes friends report on.

Good luck!

Claudio
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Claudio O. Toppelberg, MD
Principal Investigator, Project on Language and Child Psychiatry
Judge Baker Children's Center, Harvard Medical School
3 Blackfan Circle
Boston, Massachusetts 02115-5794
e-mail: topi at hms.harvard.edu
Phone:              (617) 232 8390 ext.2622
Fax:                  (617) 232 8390 ext.2621
Alternative Fax:            (617) 232 8399



  -----Original Message-----
  From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org
[mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org]On Behalf Of Eduardo Blasco Ferrer
  Sent: Friday, May 07, 2004 3:16 AM
  To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org
  Subject: selective mutism


  Dear colleagues and frieds:

  Has anyone of you worked on SELECTIVE MUTISM, trying to gain data about
planning difficulties and syntactic impairment, tested through comprehension
tests? I'd be most thankful for any suggestion or bibliography.

  Prof.Dr. Eduardo Blasco Ferrer
  Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics
  Univ. Cagliari
  09123 Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy
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