The current study is a two-year case study focusing on an upper-elementary girl who had been diagnosed with selective mutism in 1st grade. While multiple theoretical frameworks have been used to explain selective mutism, the current study borrowed the frameworks of critical sociocultural theory, a social semiotic theory of multimodality, and…

Shortly after accepting my current position as a professor at the University of Connecticut in 1987, I was asked to meet a third-grade student who had not spoken a word in an educational setting for nearly 5 years. During preschool, kindergarten, and in the elementary grades, he was mute. However, in non-educational settings, although shy, he…