Selective mutism and autism

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So, I came across this today: https://www.selectivemutismfoundation.o ... -or-autism

Thought it might be of interest to some people here. It discusses how some children with selective mutism are misdiagnosed with autism, because of similar symptoms. Personally, I was selectively mute as a kid, but nothing else was suggested as a diagnosis.

At the age of four I got diagnosed with selective mutism, and there was no doubt in anyone's mind in terms of whether or not that was the correct diagnosis.

It should be noted that selective mutism tends to be diagnosed more in girls and multi-lingual students.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/selective-mutism/

My selective mutism lasted for two years, and was quite severe to the point where I wouldn't even write or communicate in any way, and isolated myself from others. Thankfully the school soon caught this, and I was sent to speech therapy where I improved greatly. Now you'd be lucky to get me to shut up!

Yeah. Same here. I received five or six rubber-stamped diagnoses for depression between ages 15 and 20 years. In the late 1970s most diagnosticians knew autism to mean classic Kanner autism, not Asperger autism. So, the next best diagnosis (depression) pretty much walked and quacked like a duck, so that is what autists often received at the time. Still, I argued against every one of my depression diagnoses. If I was going to get a diagnosis, I wanted it accurate (which, by itself, sounds more autistic than depressive).


While I would talk a lot with my immediate family members and one or two friends, I was "shy" outside the home. If anyone else asked me a question, I would stare at the floor two feet in front of me. I learned to nod or shake my head to answer "yes" and "no," or whispered single words as answers.


Me too!

Thanks for the link... I'm amazed to realize that symptoms of Selective Mutism are what was simply considered 'shyness' when I was a kid.

Around strangers, I could only very quietly say 'yes', 'no', or 'thank you' - and only if my mom told me to say it, reminding me to be polite. This went on until I was about 12. (I remember my pediatrician noticing it around that time - that I couldn't answer any of his questions during my check-up, without looking to my mom, for her to tell me what to say.)

But I was just labeled 'shy' and 'immature', because that's all anyone knew back then.