My child would always go mute in front of a new person. I learnt that fading is one of the most effective techniques to help her to start talking to people.

A Selectively Mute child may be mute with certain people, or they may be talking to someone in a certain environment but when the environment is changed, they may not talk to them.

For e.g., my child would speak to her school friends at home but not at school. Fading technique is one of the most effective technique to help a child establish speech.

Introducing a new person –

The goal of this technique is to get child to talk to the new person. The parent of the therapist should help introduce the new person to the child. The parent or therapist should keep the child talking through engaging activities and encourage the talking.

Steps to introduce the person –

1. The new person enters the room where the parent/ therapist are playing and talking.
2. The new person should sit at a distance from the child and parent/therapist and avoid focusing on the game that the child is playing. He/she can behave as they are busy with something maybe read a book or use their phone.
3. The parent/therapist continues talking to the child using PRIDE skills.
4. Once the child is comfortably talking in the presence of the new person the new person should slowly move closer the child and start giving some attention to what the child is playing.
5. Slowly the new person joins the game if the child is still comfortable and still maintained speech the new person continues playing the game and start speaking. He can reflect, praise, describe or answer any questions the child is asking.
6. Once the child is comfortable with the new partner talking, he can start introducing forced questions to the child.
7. Once the child is comfortable to respond the parent/ therapist can slowly move out of the room and leave the child speaking to the new person.
8. If at any step the child starts feeling conscious or stops talking, we go back a step and try again moving forward when the child is comfortable.

This fading process may not be successful in the first meeting it may take a couple of sessions. Every session starts the same way, but the time taken to the next step maybe less and less. Even if all steps are achieved in the first session the next time when the child meets the new person, he may still need a bit of fading until the he is completely comfortable with the partner.

Fading should be done at least twice a week initially. The higher the frequency of these session the quicker for the child to settle in.

This technique can be specifically used to help the child start talking to their teacher in the school environment. It can be done in the classroom before the class starts. Once the child can talk to the teacher comfortably the teacher then can do the fading process with other supporting teachers and peers.

How Do I Get My Child To Speak In A New Environment?

Initially, when the school teachers highlighted to me that they have not heard her speak in the school it was a bit shocking. She was a big talker at home. We took her to a speech therapist to find out what was happening. After a few sessions she was comfortable talking to the speech therapist however when the therapist took her to a new room she stopped talking. This was very strange.

Later, I came to know that one of the signs of Selective Mutism is that if we take the child to a new environment, she may stop talking even to the people she is comfortable with. This is when I was pretty sure she has Selective Mutism even before we could confirm it with a therapist.

This technique is applied when the child is talking comfortably to the person but not talking to the person in a particular environment.

1. The parent/therapist starts the process with the child in an environment where the child is talking comfortably. The parent is talking to the child by engaging the child in game E.g., when I take my child to school, we walk to school playing and talking.
2. You can play any games – “I spy “or sing some songs.
3. Move slowly to the environment where the child does not talk much. If at any step you feel the child is becoming uncomfortable then go back few steps to the place where the child was talking.
4. You reach the environment, and the child should be still talking.

Once the child starts talking in the new environment give him lot of praise and appreciation.