Research Project: Exploring the School Constructs of Children and Young People with Selective Mutism

EdPsychEd hosted an insightful CPD webinar for Educational Psychologists with Maggie Johnson last year regarding Selective Mutism and eager to increase the awareness and understanding of SM within schools. We are excited to share details of trainee EP, Rachel Wade's research project.

By Rachel Wade, Trainee Educational Psychologist, at University of East Anglia, currently undertaking research to explore the experiences of children and young people with selective mutism.

Hi! My name is Rachel.

I am a year 2 Trainee Educational Psychologist, undertaking a Doctorate in Educational Psychology at the University of East Anglia. I have an interest in Personal Construct Psychology and my passions include enabling all children and young people to share their views and adopting creative and person-centred approaches. I developed an interest in Selective Mutism (SM) during discussions with colleagues around the challenges of capturing the views of children who find it difficult to use their voice in school. This prompted an interest in learning more about SM and in doing so, I was surprised to learn of the predominantly medicalised literature base which provided a potentially “misleading or partial representation of SM by reporting only how it appears to outsiders” (Walker & Tobbell 2015, p.456).  

Within the handful of studies eliciting the views of individuals with SM, patterns of speaking behaviour had been explored across three broad categories; school, home/family and public/social (Bergman, Keller, Piacentini., & Bergman, 2008; Ford, Sladeczek, Carlson, & Kratochwill, 1998; Roe, 2011), however little appeared to be written specifically about the school context in which the behaviour commonly occurs (Cline and Baldwin, 2004). I began noticing some themes around possible facilitatory and maintaining factors in school which guided a literature review using an educational lens to explore the school experiences of individuals with SM. Concerningly, an emerging theme identified the impact of not supporting the needs of CYP with SM in school which included longer-term educational, social and emotional consequences.  Thus, echoing Ford and Colleagues (1998) that school situations should be explored more closely to untangle the circumstantial factors that may impact the mute behaviour, I felt there needed to be more research focusing on the contextual, emotional and socialization aspects of SM in school.

I further wondered whether a likely explanation for the dearth of literature eliciting the views of CYP with SM, surrounded the barriers traditional verbal interview techniques present for individuals with SM.  However,  EPs are well placed to gather and communicate CYPs views and can utilise creative strategies when working with “hard to reach learners” (Smillie & Newton, 2020 p.337).

Allowing CYP to express themselves through drawing and writing may develop an understanding of events in school where the mutism may be a partial response (Omdal, 2007). As such, I decided that a creative drawing approach underpinned by PCP, the ‘Ideal School technique’ (Williams & Hanke, 2007), might be helpful in exploring how CYP with SM construct their ideal and non-ideal school environments. I was fortunate to make contact with Dr Emily Strong, an EP had who adapted a similar PCP approach, ‘Drawing the Ideal Self ’ (Moran 2001) for CYP with SM (Strong 2019). She inspired my research and gave me the courage and determination to pursue my passions in this field. Building on Emily’s study, I have adapted the original ‘Ideal School technique’ (Williams & Hanke, 2007) as an online, non-verbal tool for CYP with SM, to express their views about school through drawing, writing and online card sorting activities. 

This online document contains links to a number of sorting card activities, which may help children and young people answer the questions within the Ideal School.

In addition to contributing to the limited, recent, UK-based research, I hope to access the ‘hidden voices’ of CYP with SM in the UK.  I hope that this will facilitate an understanding of whether CYP feel SM has shaped their experiences in school, whilst highlighting the responsibility of professionals in acknowledging the role of environmental factors in SM. I also hope that this research may contribute a creative and empowering resource which can be added to the EP ‘tool kit’ when working with CYP with SM. By disseminating the research to other professionals (e.g., school staff and SALT, SMIRA), I hope to facilitate a shared understanding of CYPs unique needs and challenges in school whilst placing their views at the centre of their educational provision and support.

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about my research and my journey so far.

If you have any further questions, comments or feedback

OR

If you know of a parent/carer of a child or young person, living in the UK (aged 7-17) who identifies as having SM and would like to express an interest in taking part in the research please feel free to contact me  ([email protected]).

At EdPsychEd we are eager to hear about the interesting and diverse research projects Trainee Educational Psychologists are undertaking. If you are a TEP and would like us to share your research then please contact us on [email protected] 

References

Bergman, R.L., Keller, M.L., Piacentini, J., and Bergman, A.J. (2008) ‘The Development and Psychometric Properties of the Selective Mutism Questionnaire’, Journal of Clinician Child & Adolescent Psychology, 37,2, pp.456-464.

Ford, M.A., Sladeczek, I.E., Carlson, J., & Kratochwill, T.R. (1998) Selective mutism: Phenomenological characteristics, School Psychology Quarterly, 13, 3, pp.192-227.

Moran, H. (2001) ‘Who do you think you are? Drawing the Ideal Self: A technique to explore a child’s sense of self’, Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry, 6, 599-604.

Omdall, H. (2007). ‘Can adults who have recovered from selective mutism in childhood and adolescence tell us anything about the nature of the condition and/or recovery from it?’, European Journal of Special Needs Education 22, 3, 237-253.

Walker, A.S., and Tobbell, J. (2015). ‘Lost Voices and Unlived Lives: Exploring Adults’ Experiences of Selective Mutism using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis’, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 12, 453-471.

Williams, J., and Hanke, D. (2007). ‘Do you know what sort of school I want? Optimum features of school provision for pupils with autistic spectrum disorder’, Good Autism Practice, 8, 2, 51-63.

Smillie, I., & Newton, M. (2020). Educational Psychologists’ practice: obtaining an representing young people’s views. Educational Psychology in Practice, 36, 3, 328-344.

Strong, E.V., (2019). We do have a voice: Using a personal construct psychology technique to explore how children and young People with selective mutism construct their current and ‘ideal’ selves. DEdCPsy. Thesis. University of Birmingham.