i have had children in my class with selective mutism... it's an anxiety disorder .... and what i have found is for some children it's that they need to feel safe before they will talk ... others it's more of a power issue... their power has been taken and they can control who the speak with... when it happens are there triggers?... for one child i found the trigger was when ever their was a new adult in the room... so i tried really hard to control that... it took her more then a year before i heard her speak... i work with at risk children so sometimes we have more adults in the room then children... so for her i made sure that the same adults from the different agencies came when it was necessary... lyn