Treatment for Selective Mutism in Schools and Preschools

Thursday 21st March 2024, 5pm to 8pm (Sydney time).

This webinar about treatment for Selective Mutism is for primary and preschool teachers, school psychologists and learning support teams, who have a child at their school with Selective Mutism, or parents of children with Selective Mutism or extreme shyness.

Selective Mutism is a condition that severely restricts a child’s capacity for communicating verbally outside the home and typically occurs at the rate of 1 in every 200 children in primary school and much more frequently in preschool-aged children. It is a treatable anxiety disorder, but generally requires 1 to 2 years of treatment in order to resolve. An intensive treatment program at preschool/school is an essential part of treatment for most children with Selective Mutism. At the selective mutism clinic we work closely with the classroom teacher and support staff to help them deliver this program. The classroom teacher is generally the key person required to implement the strategies at school.

Topics that will be covered in the webinar:

• What is Selective Mutism
• Understanding Selective Mutism as an anxiety disorder
• Understanding a graded approach to treating anxiety
• A graded approach to working on communication – the Selective Mutism Clinic’s ‘5 Stages of communication’
• Factors that make it harder or easier for children with Selective Mutism to communicate
• General do’s and dont’s of managing Selective Mutism
• Education for all staff at a school about Selective Mutism
• Specific treatment strategies to use at preschool/school and in the classroom including:

• • Starting out strategies, including educating all staff about Selective Mutism
  • Building and expanding talking with the classroom teacher, including the ‘Sliding In’ strategy
  • Generalising talking to friends, and eventually each child in the class
  • Building children’s communication in small groups in the classroom
  • Helping children communicate in whole-class situations and in front of the class
  • Generalising talking to other teachers and staff
  • Expanding talking so that it becomes more spontaneous
• Strategies to help a child transition to a new school year and new teacher

The webinar is recommended for:

• Primary school and preschool teachers or caregivers who are currently teaching or caring for a child with Selective Mutism or an extremely reluctant talker
• School psychologists or Learning Support staff who provide support to children with Selective Mutism
• School staff who wish to attend a professional development opportunity and learn about a rigorous behavioural method of treating an anxiety condition
• If you are a Speech pathologist we recommend our 3hr 40 min webinar for Speech Pathologists here.
• If you are a parent or relative of a child with Selective Mutism we recommend our 3-hour webinar for parents here. 
• If you are seeking information about teens with Selective Mutism in high school please see details about our high school webinar here.

About the presenter:

Dr Elizabeth Woodcock is a Clinical Psychologist and Director of the Selective Mutism Clinic and also MindBox Psychology in Sydney. She has a Masters of Clinical Psychology and PhD from the University of NSW with over 20 years’ experience in treating child and adult mental health issues across both private practice and the public sector in research and clinical settings.

Elizabeth has a special interest in treatment of Selective Mutism and has seen or supervised close to 1000 cases of Selective Mutism in clients ranging from late 2’s to adulthood. She is first author of the chapter ‘Treatment Programmes for Children with Selective Mutism’ in the book ‘Innovations and Advances in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy’ edited by D. Einstein (2007). Elizabeth runs a series of training webinars about Selective Mutism each year to suit a range of audiences, including teachers, parents, speech pathologists, and psychologists.

Cost:

The webinar price is $160. Earlybird price for payments received before 8th February 2024 is $130. Each additional person in the same booking (must be within the one payment) costs $50 per person. Cancelled bookings can be transferred but not refunded.

Registrations:

To register, click on the link below to pay via Paypal or pay via credit card. This will add the relevant items to your basket, then navigate to the basket and follow the links. If your school or organisation is paying and you would like an invoice to be sent to the school, click here to email the clinic and provide your name and phone number and request an invoice. Registration closes on 20th March 2024.

 

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