Selective Mutism In Special Education

There are critical gaps regarding SM children in the classroom in research literature and studies. The difference is due to a limited number of observations of how SM children interact in the home environment, kindergarten and upper grades (Omdal, 2014). Indeed, there has been no comparison of how the SM child communicates in various settings nor have observations documented how the family interacts with an SM child (Omdal, 2014). In addition, researchers and health care physicians argue about the classification and treatment methods of SM children (Omdal, 2014). The two groups of professionals appear to be more inclined to create their method of determining an assessment and planning the treatment. Also, SM is considered a low incidence condition. Consequently, due to the labeling of a low-incidence state, agencies that would typically help do not have the expertise to provide needed advice (Omdal, 2014).

As of 2015, the only researcher addressing or investigating the teacher’s role in supporting an SM child is Omdal(2014).

Therefore, unanswered questions regarding interventions that are most effective to treat SM in a classroom setting are almost nil among researchers. Furthermore, due to the lack of research concerning this issue, SM children are placed in special education classes that prove detrimental to this disorder. As a result, it is vital that more is learned about Selective Mutism in the environment of learning, so appropriate strategies are executed in the classroom. To accomplish this task, guidelines and strategies that close this gap in research are needed to address unanswered questions concerning treatment and interventions in the school (Krysanski, 2003; & Shippon-Blum, et al.,

2015).
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this quantitative comparative study will be to focus on how much awareness and expertise school teachers have teaching children with SM.
There has been little research on kindergarten, middle school and high school teachers’ knowledge of SM. This study, as a result, will use the data collected to develop a training program for school teacher’s on SM in addition to determining the level of training needed.
Research Questions
Research is lacking on how significant the teacher’s role is in supporting the SM child in the classroom (Wong, 2010). To date, only one researcher, Omdal (2014), has broached this subject in a study. It is crucial that teachers in all grade levels are made aware of SM and trained how to work with SM children in the classroom. It was hypothesized in this study that teachers made aware of SM and trained in educating SM children are more efficient in supporting the SM child than teachers unaware of SM and not trained to help the SM child.