Selective Mutism is an anxiety-disorder of childhood where a child demonstrates an inability to speak in certain social environments. A child may have difficulty speaking in one environment (speaks at home, but not at school) or multiple environments (does not speak at home or school). Selective Mutism is associated with functional impairments in educational, familial, social, or occupational settings. Left untreated, Selective Mutism may lead to increased stress within family units, decreased academic performance, and decreased socialization needed for appropriate development.

Back-to-school time is just around the corner and for children struggling with anxiety, it can be a time of increased stress (both for children and their families). Below are some tips that can help parents and kids feel more prepared for the transition back to school: Begin initiating expected bedtime and morning routines several weeks before school resumes: It is typically pretty challenging to switch from a relaxed summer schedule to a structured school schedule.

One of the most common things I hear from parents when they bring their child into the office for treatment of selective mutism is: “I hadn’t even heard of this!” or “We’ve had them in speech therapy this whole time, even though they speak perfectly at home!” This is largely due to a misunderstanding of selective mutism and a lack of overall awareness of the disorder. Many caregivers as well as healthcare and school professionals haven’t heard of selective mutism and attribute a lack of speaking to the fact that a child is “shy.”

Parenting an adolescent comes with a unique set of challenges. Many of the pressures that teens are dealing with today are new. Social media and the competitiveness of college acceptance, along with the lasting effects of the pandemic, all contribute to the pressures facing adolescents. Add on additional struggles with general anxiety, OCD, social anxiety, testing anxiety, and parenting can feel overwhelming. Below are some suggestions to help guide you through this stage:

“Do you think I’m going to be okay?”

That’s a real text (or at least a variation of one) that I sent to my mom, every day (sometimes multiple times per day) throughout the entirety of my college career. I was deep in an anxiety spiral that I had no real insight into, beyond that creeping feeling of “something is wrong.” At the time, I had no inkling that there could be a version of life where anxiety didn’t have such a strong impact on me.

Spring is here – and by every way of its arrival, so is testing season in schools. Testing can bring up anxiety in any child, and as a parent, it is difficult to know how to best support your child. Testing anxiety, which is also considered performance anxiety, involves the fear of being judged as inadequate, as well as the fear of underperforming or making a mistake and of failure and/or rejection.

Children with anxious temperaments or those who worry about making mistakes or performing in general are particularly susceptible to feeling test anxiety. Usually when a child thinks that they aren’t going to do well on a test, then they tend to feel more anxious going in.

Relaxation relies on paradoxical processes. What this means is that it is challenging to “try to relax.” We have all been in a situation where someone tells us to calm down, and we react with anger and irritation. Trying to suppress our emotions, numb or not feel them, may work to get rid of unwanted feelings. However, numbing, avoiding, and suppressing emotions can dull our emotional experience and affect how we interpret what is going on in our lives and interact with others. Psychotherapy can help teach us proven techniques to lower our stress levels and anxiety without getting rid of emotions.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) suggests that our thoughts, feelings/emotions, and behaviors are all connected to one another and influence one another. CBT aims to identify and modify unhelpful thinking and behavioral patterns.