Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Norway.
UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, USA.
Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2020 Oct;25(4):754-765. doi: 10.1177/1359104520914695. Epub 2020 Apr 13.
The core symptom of the anxiety disorder selective mutism (SM) is absence of speech in specific situations, such as at school. The most commonly used standardized instruments to assess speaking behavior are the parent-rated Selective Mutism Questionnaire (SMQ) and the teacher-rated School Speech Questionnaire (SSQ), scored from 0 to 3, indicating that speaking behavior never, seldom, often, and always occur. They were developed to assess severity of mutism and potential effects of treatment. However, prospective data on speaking behavior in typically developing children (TDs) are missing in the literature. The main aim of this study was to present data from TDs over time with previously reported data from children treated for SM, as a comparison. Participants were 64 children aged 3-9 years, 32 TDs who were a matched control group to 32 children with SM. At baseline, the mean SMQ and SSQ scores were ⩾2.5 in TDs and 0.5 in children with SM. The TDs did not show significant changes over time, while significantly increased speech was found in children with SM after treatment. Thus, our findings support the use of the SMQ/SSQ to assess baseline SM severity and to evaluate potential treatment effects in future studies.
选择性缄默症（SM）的核心症状是在特定情境下（如在学校）不说话。最常用于评估言语行为的标准化工具是家长评定的选择性缄默症问卷（SMQ）和教师评定的学校言语问卷（SSQ），评分范围为 0-3 分，分别表示言语行为从不、很少、经常和总是发生。这些工具是为了评估缄默症的严重程度和治疗效果而开发的。然而，文献中缺乏针对典型发育儿童（TDs）的言语行为的前瞻性数据。本研究的主要目的是展示 TDs 随时间变化的言语行为数据，并与之前报告的接受 SM 治疗的儿童数据进行比较。参与者为 64 名 3-9 岁的儿童，其中 32 名为 TDs，作为 SM 儿童的匹配对照组。在基线时，TDs 的 SMQ 和 SSQ 评分均值≥2.5，而 SM 儿童的评分均值为 0.5。TDs 随时间无明显变化，而接受治疗后 SM 儿童的言语显著增加。因此，我们的研究结果支持使用 SMQ/SSQ 评估基线 SM 严重程度，并在未来研究中评估潜在的治疗效果。
