Hi Karina. I, too, was faced with a silent child as a teacher.
Thank you for your professionalism in wanting to help this child.
There are many things you can do to help this child. Your job is to
reduce all anxiety, not to produce speech. Once the anxiety is
reduced the speech will follow. Very seldom is selective mutism
caused from abuse, not to say it's not the case here. However, the
fact that your student speaks freely at home, but not at school
sounds as if this is a typical case. Most sm children are quite
bright and come from loving caring families. However, sm is linked
genetically. So, there may be social phobia in the family. Another
problem you may face is that to an immigrant family, this anxiety
disorder may be a disgrace and they may not want to admit or address
it. You may need to gently approach the subject with them. If you
will check www.selectivemutismcenter website, I have a listing
of "Classroom Strategies", bottom right of first page. Some
suggestions are, avoid eye contact at first, assure the child that
your will not try to force him to speak, seat the child to the side
of the room so that he is not front and center, drawing attention.
You, certainly, can have a discussion with the class when the child
is not present about fears and then ways to respond to the child.
For example, include in all activities, do not yell out or bring any
attention if the child should speak. You can find much information
with our nonprofit org. at www.selectivemutism.org. Use a search
engine and you will now find much information. Hope this helps.
Gail Kervatt
www.selective-mutism.com