03/12/2025
Building a 'Talking Bridge' with Selective Mutism 👇🏻
Today, I had a truly rewarding session with two incredible primary school students, demonstrating a key therapeutic technique for Selective Mutism (SM).
Our goal was to transfer communication skills practiced in individual sessions to a social setting.
▪️Client A has Selective Mutism and is typically unable to speak around, or directly to, children in his school environment. After months of therapy, he now speaks comfortably to me, as well as to his teachers and other unfamiliar adults. Peers at school remain a challenge.
▪️Client B served as a fantastic, supportive communication partner.
We used a Guess Who game to create a controlled social interaction, which I call a "talking bridge" scenario.
Initially, Client A used me to relay his messages to Client B (e.g., "Ask him if his character has glasses," or "Tell him I think it's the pirate"). This indirect communication allowed him to participate without the full pressure of direct peer interaction.
As the game progressed, Client A became visibly more relaxed. We began hearing louder speech and more spontaneous communication directed at me.
This progress perfectly illustrates the use of stimulus fading and desensitization in SM treatment. We are slowly introducing the feared social stimuli (speaking to peers) within a safe and structured activity.
The next therapeutic step is to gradually remove the "talking bridge" (me!) to encourage more direct, spontaneous speech between Client A and his peer. Incremental steps like this are critical to success!
