This 3-hour webinar for mental health professionals and other health professionals by Elizabeth Woodcock, Clinical Psychologist and Director of the Selective Mutism Clinic, is about Assessment and Treatment of Selective Mutism in Children.

The webinar outlines a multidimensional cognitive-behavioural approach to treatment for children with Selective Mutism that involves an intensive school program with skills training for the classroom teacher, all school personnel, the parent(s), and the child. Strategies specific to Selective Mutism treatment that differ from standard CBT for anxiety disorders will be highlighted. The complexities and comorbid conditions of Selective Mutism that impact treatment will be discussed as well as family factors that need to be addressed.

In line with the Selective Mutism Clinic’s three-tiered approach, strategies are discussed that:

1. Train the classroom teacher to be an effective coach for the child and to implement an intensive school program that target’s the communication anxiety. How to prepare the school and select a classroom teacher who will maximise the child’s chance of success.
2. Build the child’s own knowledge about their anxiety, speech anxiety, and other emotions, and specific skills to address these
3. Target the complex family factors that play a role in the mutism, and train the parent to respond appropriately to their child’s emotional needs and build the child’s communication in social settings.

This webinar shows engaging Powerpoint slides with the accompanying audio but not video of the presenter, Dr Elizabeth Woodcock. For a longer, more-indepth presentation for health professionals that includes video of the presenter, see the 1-day webinar “Assessment and Treatment of Selective Mutism in Children” here.