About Gavin

This will be short and to the point to give a little background on Gavin, who is currently 6 years old and started the 1st grade today.  I'll use this blog to document his progress, his struggles, and to hopefully let others who have someone close to them with Selective Mutism to understand and know they're not alone.

When Gavin was about 2 and a half  years old, I started to get concerned about his speech, actually his lack there-of.  At that time, I had only ever heard him say 'maybe' 5 words total.  I took him in for a speech evaluation and they determined he needed speech and language therapy.  This was nothing new for me as I had already had 2 children that had some speech delays and needed therapy for articulation.  Gavin was different though, what little words Gavin would speak, he would only speak to me.  He would not talk to his brothers or sisters, his dad, or anyone outside the home. 

He started speech therapy at age 3 and loved his therapist, but would not speak to her.  It was around this time however that he did start speaking in front of the rest of our household.  It wasn't much, but it was something.

When he was 4 he started preschool and absolutely adored his teachers and loved going to school, but again wouldn't speak.  About half way into that school year, his speech therapist asked if I ever heard of Selective Mutism.  I hadn't but of course went straight home and researched it for weeks.  Everything I read about it, it was like they were talking about my Gavin.  Finally, his lack of speaking made sense.  He wasn't just shy, he wasn't just stubborn, there was an actual reason for his lack of communication!

After a full school year of preschool, Gavin started Kindergarten and again absolutely loved his teacher and school.  But again, he wouldn't speak.  During the entire school year not a single person in that building ever heard Gavin speak or even whisper a single word.  Now that we knew the problem though, we could try to find ways to help him, and one of the things his teacher came up with was "Yes/No" sticks.  Just two simple strips of paper, one green with the word Yes, and one red with the word No that Gavin would point to when he needed to answer a yes or no question.  He learned everything he was taught that year and would tell me all about it every day when he got home.  But his lack of communication made it difficult for them to assess his progress.

......There's the short story background, and the rest will be written as we experience it  :)