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The Integrated Behavior Therapy for Children with Selective Mutism: Findings from an open pilot study in a

Maayan Shorer1,2, Zivit Ben-Haim1, Naama Klauzner1

  • 1Psychological Medicine Department, 36739Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel, Petach-Tikva, Israel.

Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry
|April 19, 2022
PubMed

Insights

Integrated Behavior Therapy for Children with Selective Mutism (IBTSM) is a feasible and effective treatment for reducing selective mutism (SM) and social anxiety (SA) symptoms in children. The therapy also successfully decreased parental accommodation behaviors.

Area of Science:

  • Child Psychology
  • Behavioral Therapy
  • Clinical Psychology

Background:

  • Selective Mutism (SM) is an anxiety disorder characterized by a child's inability to speak in specific social situations.
  • Social Anxiety (SA) often co-occurs with SM, exacerbating the child's distress and impacting social functioning.
  • Parental accommodation of SM symptoms can inadvertently maintain the disorder.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of the Integrated Behavior Therapy for Children with Selective Mutism (IBTSM).
  • To assess the impact of IBTSM on children's SM and social anxiety (SA) symptoms.
  • To determine the effect of IBTSM on parental accommodation behaviors.

Main Methods:

  • An open, uncontrolled trial involving 30 children aged 4-13 diagnosed with SM.
  • Utilized the IBTSM protocol with assessments at baseline, first session, and post-treatment.
  • Employed structured interviews for diagnosis, parent questionnaires for SM, SA, and accommodation, and clinician ratings for global functioning.

Main Results:

  • IBTSM demonstrated acceptable dropout rates, high therapist acceptability, and no adverse events.
  • Significant reductions were observed in children's SM and SA symptoms, as well as parental accommodation.
  • Clinicians rated 75% of children as treatment responders.

Conclusions:

  • IBTSM is a feasible, acceptable, and efficacious treatment for children with SM in clinical settings.
  • The findings support the use of IBTSM for addressing SM, SA, and parental accommodation.
  • Further validation through randomized controlled trials is recommended.

Keywords:
Integrated Behavior Therapy for Children with Selective MutismSelective mutismfamily accommodationsocial anxietytreatment efficacy

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