KENT NEWS: While most little girls are difficult to keep quiet, Megan Coleman is the complete opposite – she has not uttered a single word in public for eight years.
Despite being a typical, happy 11-year-old, the youngster has only been able to speak to close family members.
She suffers from selective mutism – a phobia of speaking in public – an anxiety disorder affecting around one in 150 youngsters.
Megan, from Dover, was four-years-old when she first stopped speaking.
Her mother Karen told KOS Media a small incident while on holiday triggered the change in her chatty little girl.
“She was in the swimming pool when she spoke to a lady thinking it was me,” said the 48-year-old. “When her dad pointed out that it wasn’t me she got really upset. We don’t really know whether it was this that caused it, but it all seemed to start from there.”
By the time Megan was five she wasn’t talking at all outside of her home and even then she would clam up if someone other than her parents or siblings were present.
Even her grandparents never heard her utter a word.
Karen said: “She would talk to us in her normal way, but as soon as someone else was there or she went out in public she would stop.
“She had this scared look on her face and became very anxious. She never cried or even laughed when other people were around or if she was outside the security of our home.”
But the youngster was not clamming up through choice.
Karen said: “Teachers said there were always quiet pupils, but she wasn’t talking at all. One day someone asked me about it and said it could be selective mutism.”
Karen and her family were relieved to discover there was a reason for Megan’s silence and she was diagnosed with selective mutism at the age of six years.
After not speaking for two years, speech therapist Miriam Jemmett got involved and a technique called ‘sliding in’ was used.
The author of the Selective Mutism Resource Manual, Maggie Johnson, said this is a gradual process.
She said: “Using the ‘sliding in’ technique you get the child relaxed and start them talking or counting, for example, to their parent.
“A person who they have trouble talking to would wait outside the door and gradually begin to join in counting with the child and parent. They would then come into the room.”
Ms Johnson, from Margate, said selective mutism is more common than people think.
“There are extreme cases like Megan’s or others where a child will speak to children but not adults, or to adults but not children – it’s very selective,” she said.
“When children have a phobia such as being scared of the dark people understand it. But with selective mutism they don’t and so they ask the child why they aren’t speaking, which puts even more pressure on them.”
Ms Johnson said it is about trying to understand and explaining to the child why it has happened.
In Megan’s case, treatment by her speech therapist means she is now able to speak a few words and has gained a grammar school place.
Karen said: “She’s improving. We’re just hoping that one day she will be able to overcome this, but we’ll have to wait and see.
“We try not to let it affect us. Megan is still a typical little girl who loves her ballet, tap and cheerleading.”
POSTED: 06/02/2010 11:00:00
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