1. The study examined receptive language and academic abilities in children with selective mutism (SM), anxiety disorders, and community controls. 2. They found that female children with SM and anxiety disorders had significantly lower receptive vocabulary scores than community controls. Children with SM and anxiety disorders also had significantly lower mathematics scores than community controls. 3. Despite differences in mathematics and receptive vocabulary, children with SM and anxiety disorders still performed at age-level norms, while more community controls performed above age-level norms. The findings suggest that despite speaking inhibition in school, children with SM can attain expected receptive language and academic abilities for their age.

1. Infant and Child Development
Inf. Child. Dev. 18: 271–290 (2009)
Published online 18 May 2009 in Wiley InterScience
(www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/icd.624
Language and Academic Abilities in
Children with Selective Mutism
Matilda E. Nowakowskia, Charles C. Cunninghamb,
Angela E. McHolmb, Mary Ann Evansc, Shannon Edisonc,
Jeff St. Pierred, Michael H. Boyleb and Louis A. Schmidta,Ã
a
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University,
Hamilton, Ont., Canada
b
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University,
Hamilton, Ont., Canada
c
Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ont., Canada
d
Child and Parent Resource Institute (CPRI), London, Ont., Canada

3. We examined receptive language and academic abilities in

4. children with selective mutism (SM; n 5 30; M age 5 8.8 years),

6. anxiety disorders (n 5 46; M age 5 9.3 years), and community

8. controls (n 5 27; M age 5 7.8 years). Receptive language and

10. academic abilities were assessed using standardized tests

12. completed in the laboratory. We found a significant group by

14. sex interaction for receptive vocabulary scores such that within

15. females, the SM and mixed anxiety groups had significantly

17. lower receptive vocabulary scores than community controls. We

19. also found that children with SM and children with anxiety

21. disorders had significantly lower mathematics scores than