Beyond Shy: Why Some Kids Clam Up in School

New insights are helping us understand and treat selective mutism

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It is 11:30 on an August morning in New York City's Central Park Zoo—breakfast time for the sea lions. A joyful crowd oohs and aahs as trainers put the animals through their paces: catching tossed fish in midair, high-fiving with their flippers, squirting water and torpedoing around the pool. Amid the raucous throng, nine small children watch in wide-eyed silence. When a sea lion zips past at stunning speed, they do not add their voices to the squeals of delight. Some of these children are talking quietly to a camp counselor. Others sit with worried expressions that seem sadly at odds with the scene.

The nine children, ages three to six, are subdued by an anxiety disorder called selective mutism, a condition that often looks and feels like very painful shyness but with a twist. These kids will generally speak—and some will blithely chatter away—when out of the public eye and in the comforting cocoon of their own homes. But in certain settings and most typically in school, they shut down and go silent.

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