from what i can tell your son is progressing quickly already from
what i learned with my daughter through this is that the less
we "push" the better she does. we keep constant goals and when she
meets those goals she is rewarding and new goals are determined. now
each child goes at there own pace. if my story is still in the
message list somewhere (i didnt check) then you can read to see how
bad it was for my daughter in public school and we ended up having to
place her in psycho-educational school. she is extremely intelligent
but socially is far behind. this past year in first grade she made
more progress than i thought was ever going to be possible and was
awarded at honors day for most improved socially. she is nowhere near
able to give an oral report in class but she is now speaking to
almost all teachers in her little school and pretty much all of the
kids. she still wont speak to the bus driver even if she is in pain
but we go at our own pace. this summer continue having cody in
playgroup and such because it is normal to him but if my daughter
felt pushed she ended up feeling more "in the spotlight" which made
her more fearful. the more we pretending it wasnt a thing the more
she game out. the goals remain in the background. and next year she
might start working slowly back into regular school. last week her
pediatrician that she has known her whole life finally got to hear
her voice. not directed to her though. she would speak to me in front
of her but not to the dr herself. so it may be slow going but it
moves along. just keep in mind that this is an anxiety issue that the
child can not control. none of us can control what scares us. may not
even understand it ourselves. i was very much against the medications
they wanted to prescribe for s.m. and fortunatly so was my
pediatrician. but we did find a compromise that i was comfortable
with. speak to your pediatrician about benadryl. Ours had us give
Kalynn 1 regular benadryl every day (not childrens) better to try
that in the summer if your gonna try it cause the first couple weeks
it will make the child sleep alot. but it is an anti anxiety also.
(most people like me dont know that lol ) and i have to say that was
the turning point for us. we didnt even keep her on it long just do
to hectic schedules and forgetfulness. but the couple months that she
used it got her through the big hump and now we are doing much
better. she was only 6 then so thats about the same age as cody. but
discuss it with the dr first to see if he/she thinks that would work
for him (they know your baby better than i do :) )all i can say is
what worked here and hope that any idea might help another . i know i
felt so helpless when all this first started here. and the more i
learned from others who went through it the better. even if the ideas
didnt work it at least led to more ideas or eliminated something. so
if any of this helps cody then that means kalynn didnt go through it
in vain. good luck to you both.
~Kacey~


--- In selectivemutismsupportgroup2@yahoogroups.com, "ashlynsmom2002"
<ashlynsmom2002@y...> wrote:
> My son,Cade, is 5 1/2 years old and seems to meet all of the
> criteria of a selectively mute child. When he started pre-school
> earlier this year he would not talk to anybody in his class
> inculding his teacher. The teacher approached me an explained that
> she did not know how to get my son to talk. She also had no idea
of
> his abilities, as far as academics, since he refused to answer any
> questions. I stumbled across the term "selective mutism" and began
> to research it via the internet. I was excited to finally figure
> out why my son acted the way he did. I printed out every article
> that I could find on selective mutism and gave it to his teacher.
> For the last 6 months she has done a wonderful job helping Cade
feel
> comfortable to talk in class. Now he is able to talk when he is
> spoken to. Now I am at a loss as to what the next step should be.
> His teacher said he is academically equal to his peers but he is
> socially behind. Although he will speak in class and when out in
> public, he shows little to no interest in playing with children his
> age. Do you have any suggestions on how I could work with him this
> summer? I presently meet with a play-group once a week and I have
a
> boy his age over to play with Cade once a week as well. I am open
> to suggestions. Thanks in advance.
>
> D.J.