Integrated Behavioral Therapy for Treating Children With Selective Mutism

Participants in the BT condition will receive twenty 60-minute sessions over 24 weeks. Sessions will focus on graduated exposure to new speaking situations as the primary agent of anxiety reduction. Behavioral procedures will include systematic desensitization, shaping, and self-modeling procedures. Although a variety of exposure exercises will be routinely conducted in-session, any behavioral assignments will take place outside of session. Behavioral exercises will be implemented, as needed, in a modular fashion. For example, exercises may focus on speaking in-session to therapist, either at school or at home with others present. The therapist will be primarily responsible for developing the exposure parameters, but collaboration of parent, teacher, child will be emphasized increasingly over time. Reinforcement for attempts to complete assignments (contingency management program) will occur throughout treatment.