Selective mutism – Parent Strategy: Friends with Animals

• Who: Amy, friends, animals
• Location: friend’s house
• Environment: quiet, relaxed
• Worry Level: 0
• Purpose: Animals are a good outlet for Amy to talk to.
• What is Happening: Amy goes a friend’s house to ride on horses. She loves animals, so this will relax her and make her happy.

Strategy -Keep Amy busy, find activities that Amy love to do

Amy becomes friends with people who have different animals

• Joining a 4H club
• Join a small animal club
• Go to an animal shelter
• Go to a horse farm

There she can talk with the different animals in a relaxed environment – talking to animals is easier than talking to people because they do not have more authority and they do not judge her

Amy helps care for the animals, plays with them, and makes them comfortable

Strategy - Provide opportunities to talk

Ask Amy questions that make her enthusiastic

• “Do you want to go on the horse again?”
• “What name do you like better for this cat, Bubbles or Buttercup?”

Amy likes animals and every time she see animals she become very excited and runs up to play with them. When she is around animals, her nerves disappear and she is happy. Due to this, Amy’s mom often takes Amy to the zoo, animal shelter, or horse farm to takes care of animals and play with them.

It was a sunny day, and Amy was invited to play at her best friend’s house. Her friend Julie, has two cute ponies at her house. When Amy arrives at Julie’s house, she begs Julie to go to the backyard to see the ponies. That day, Julie also invited some of her other friends. At first, Amy is shy because she did not know any of the kids that Julie invited. All the kids ran to the backyard happily greeting the ponies and gently brushing and patting their fur. “Let’s play a horse racing game!” Julie suggested. Everyone nodded in agreement. Then Amy and other girl both picked a horse to ride on and the game began. Everyone began to cheer. “Amy, turn around at 2 o’clock!” screamed one of the kids. “Amy, you did such a good job”, another kid complemented. Amy felt so happy riding the pony and her face held a huge grin. She encouraged her pony, “Nally, come on, go faster!” Afterward, different children tried riding the ponies and Amy was so happy she even cheered the other kids on. Amy was so happy and relaxed that afternoon while surrounded by the other children.

Time passed by fast, it was dark outside, and Amy had to go home. Amy held onto Nally’s reins, reluctant to return her back to the stable. Before leaving, she hugged Nally’s neck and talking to her. Nally neighed a few times as if she understood Amy did not want to leave her.

Tip: For selective mutism kids, please encourage them to play with animals because animals don’t judge or criticize. By doing so, Amy will become relaxed and parents should encourage kids to care, love and play with animals. In order to encourage kids to speak allow them to relax by looking for opportunities to answer some simple questions. For example, do you still want to ride the horse? Or what kind of name would you name the animal?

Jun Reitman & Joanna Wu [e-mail] SunnyMindED.org