Author’s Note

Whether you are a parent, teacher, or caregiver who has a loved one in your life who faces the challenge of Selective Mutism, or even if you have a purely academic interest in this topic, I am truly overjoyed that you found this book. We will endeavor to show you how minute changes and accommodations in everyday interactions and communications can bring about amazing differences in the daily lives of SM children.

My beautiful, intelligent, and engaging child, Amy, has Selective Mutism (SM). As a loving and devoted parent, as we all are, I wanted to share my knowledge and experiences with those who seek a clearer understanding of the perplexing and little understood condition of Selective Mutism. My purpose in writing this book was to help myself, you and your SM Child to come closer together and gain a mutual understanding of the challenges you both face.

At the age of 3 and a half, we noticed a marked change in Amy. She began talking less in public settings. When she turned 5, she completely stopped talking to individuals outside her immediate family/caregiver/teacher circle. She would only talk to her immediate family and her two closest childhood friends; her soon to be “whisper buddies”.

After being diagnosed with SM, we began engaging Amy in simple activities and using basic strategies to help her engage with her environment. After a year and a half of silence, we were able to get Amy to begin talking and to engage in conversations with new friends using simple activities and strategies within three months.

This book contains specific scenarios paired with contextual strategies that allow you to facilitate communication with SM children. This book also includes fun, interesting drawings for SM kids to color so that they can also learn how they should handle situations in a non-verbal fashion.

The book is called SMart Amy because Amy has Selective Mutism and is very intelligent and cognizant.

SM children are often overlooked because they are some of the brightest and best behaved students in a classroom.

*We will use “she” in this book because Amy is a girl.

作者俊華,艾米媽 。 如有需要，加微信：junwang08837，艾米媽邀你進 “選擇性緘默症家長分享群”。

選擇性緘默症包括語言恐 Speech Phobia，感知障礙 Sensory Disorder, 社交恐懼 Social Anxiety 。 關鍵詞： 孩子為什麽不說話，孩子在外麵不說話，孩子不敢說話，和陌生人不說話，社交恐懼，孩子在幼兒園和學校不說話，害羞，敏感，膽子小，懦弱，怕生，內向，沒自信，固執，不敢吃飯，不敢去廁所，不敢和小朋友玩，，在家講話，出門不講話。隻和爸爸媽媽說話， 不敢參加集體活動。