Mutism is a rare childhood condition characterized by a consistent failure to speak in situations where talking is expected. The child has the ability to converse normally, and does so, for example, in the home, but consistently fails to speak in...

In psychiatry, term referring to the effects of a psychoneurotic disturbance which, after the onset of language acquisition, can lead to muteness in children and adults (‘total mutism’), or to a refusal of children to speak to particular...

The absence of speech; it can occur as a psychological condition with no physical cause and also occurs in an ORGANIC condition known as akinetic mutism. In this patients are conscious and aware, but emit no speech (see SPEECH PRODUCTION) and show a...

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Selective mutism is a social anxiety disorder in which a person who is normally capable of speech is unable to speak in given...

Selective mutism is a disorder characterized by a persistent failure to speak in certain social situations. It is typically diagnosed in childhood, and the disorder can last from just a few months to several years in some individuals. Debate surrounds the origins and causes...

The quietest children are often the ones who make our office hours run smoothly. They're in and out during well-child visits, letting Mom or Dad field the questions as they peek out from behind bangs or tucked heads. When the clock is ticking...

The Virginia Tech student who killed 32 people and himself on campus in April had been treated in high school for a mental disorder that left him unable to speak in public, but the university was never told about the condition, according to newspaper reports.A...

The gunman responsible for the April massacre at Virginia Tech was a sickly child _ shy, frail and leery of physical contact by the time he was 3. His teachers said he began showing suicidal and homicidal tendencies by the eighth grade.A new report that...