title: Narrative skills in children with selective mutism: an exploratory study.
abstract: Selective mutism (SM) is a rare and complex disorder associated with anxiety symptoms and speech-language deficits; however, the nature of these language deficits has not been studied systematically. A novel cross-disciplinary assessment protocol was used to assess anxiety and nonverbal cognitive, receptive language, and expressive narrative abilities in 7 children with SM and a comparison group of 7 children with social phobia (SP). The children with SM produced significantly shorter narratives than children with SP, despite showing normal nonverbal cognitive and receptive language abilities. The findings suggest that SM may involve subtle expressive language deficits that may influence academic performance and raise additional questions for further research. The assessment procedure developed for this study may be potentially useful for language clinicians.
authors.affiliation: The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McInnes
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fung
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Manassis
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fiksenbaum
authors.forename: Rosemary
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tannock
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D009155:Mutism / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D033262:Narration; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013637:Tape Recording