Question
What type of questions should I ask children with selective mutism?
Answer
- Yes/No
- Forced-Choice
- Open-Ended
- Stay Away From
- Complex questions
- Really open-ended questions
- Feelings questions
Forced-Choice Questions
There are different types of questions that adults are encouraged to ask during these stimulus fading interactions with children or in general with children with selective mutism. The most effective type of question to pose to a child with selective mutism is a forced-choice question. There are a few reasons why we think that might be effective. One is that it says to a child, I expect you to give me a verbal answer. It's very difficult to respond non-verbally or with gestures to a forced-choice question. If the daycare provider says, “Do you want a cookie or a piece of chocolate for lunch?” it's very difficult for a child to use a gesture to respond to that. It necessitates speech. The other reason that we think forced-choice questions are effective is they give the child options and tell the child these are the right possible answers that you can give. The child doesn't have to do any processing and it takes away a lot of the language demand and the cognitive effort. Forced-choice questions are by far the most effective type of question to use with children with selective mutism.
Open-Ended Questions
Open-ended questions can also be good, but they do necessitate some language processing. If you say things such as, “What's your favorite color?” the child has to think about what colors there are, how to say them, and what's their favorite. The child also may be thinking about what the daycare provider wants to hear is their favorite and what people might think about their favorite. They have all of these thoughts going through their head that might slow down their response.
Yes/No Questions
Yes/no questions aren't the preferable type of question for a child with selective mutism, specifically because they allow for a nod or a shake of the head. They don't ask the child to face their fear of speaking. If you ask a child with selective mutism a yes/no question, the child will probably nod or shake her head. We generally try to stay away from yes/no questions and we focus more on forced-choice and then secondarily, open-ended questions.
Stay Away From…
Things you definitely want to stay away from are complex questions. You don't want to confuse a child with your question. You want to make your questions really easy for them to answer, especially for children with selective mutism. Ask concrete kinds of questions about things that they would automatically know, such as colors, simple counting, or the names of things. Those would be pretty concrete questions to ask a child with selective mutism.
You don't want to ask really open-ended questions. An example of a really open-ended question would be something such as, “Jeremy, what did you do last summer?” That's a really open-ended question where the child has to do a lot of processing to come up with an answer. Instead, you might want to make those questions forced choice. Some examples of making a really open-ended question into a forced-choice question include:
- Did you go on a trip or stay at home last summer?
- Did you ride your bike or not ride your bike last summer?
- Did you play with friends, go to the pool, or something different last summer?
Things like feelings questions are hard for children to answer at any point, particularly for young children with selective mutism. When you ask them questions such as, “How did you feel about that?” or “What do think about that?” you’re asking a really complex question. We typically stay away from those.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, Unlocking the Mystery of Selective Mutism, by Aimee Kotrba.
