| Content | 5 |
| A Brief History | 8 |
| Introduction | 11 |
| Part I – Theoretical Approaches | 19 |
| 1 What is (Selective) Mutism? | 20 |
| 1.1 Definition and Appearance | 20 |
| 1.2 Diagnostic Criteria | 23 |
| 1.3 Types of Mutism | 24 |
| 1.4 Epidemiology, Co-Morbidity and Risk Factors | 26 |
| 1.5 A Contribution to Aetiology: Why Are Children Silent? | 31 |
| 2 Linguistic and Developmental-Psychological Approaches | 34 |
| 2.1 Why a Developmental-Psychological Approach? | 34 |
| 2.2 Language Acquisition and Language Development | 35 |
| 2.3 Summary | 55 |
| Part II – Diagnostics and Therapy Coordination | 57 |
| 1 Diagnostic Surveys | 58 |
| 2 Setting and Case Management | 63 |
| 3 Survey of Data Relevant to Therapy | 66 |
| Part III – Therapeutic Approaches and Efficacious Treatments | 79 |
| 1 Therapeutic Attitude | 80 |
| 1.1 Exert Pressure or Use Laissez Faire? | 81 |
| 1.2 Relationship Design and Motivation | 82 |
| 1.3 Models, Techniques, Training Programmes | 87 |
| 1.4 Integrative Principles for Therapeutic Work | 88 |
| 2 Therapy Planning | 90 |
| 2.1 Clarification of the Tasks of the Treatment | 90 |
| 2.2 Separation from Attachment Figures | 94 |
| 2.3 Safe Place | 98 |
| 2.4 Strengthening the „Alter Ego“ | 104 |
| 2.5 Perseverance | 108 |
| Part IV – Communicating Non-Verbally | 111 |
| 1 Constructing Communicative Behavior | 112 |
| 2 Working with Puppets and Transitional Objects | 114 |
| 3 The Fairytale Book with Speech Bubbles | 117 |
| 4 Language Therapies | 120 |
| 5 Symbolisation and Narrative Processing | 125 |
| 5.1 The Symbolic Game as Therapeutic Intervention | 125 |
| 5.2 The Relevance of Symbolic Play in Therapy | 127 |
| 5.3 The Therapeutic Role in Symbolic Play | 129 |
| 5.4 Digression: Developmental Diagnosis of Symbolic Play | 132 |
| 6 Taming Aggression in Symbolic and Role-Play | 135 |
| Part V – Building Verbal Communication | 143 |
| 1 Communicating with Sounds | 144 |
| 2 First Words | 146 |
| 2.1 The First Word of the Preschool Child | 146 |
| 2.2 The First Word of the Schoolchild | 151 |
| 3 Working with the Tape | 158 |
| 4 Shadow Speaking and Forced Moves | 160 |
| 5 Working with „Ego-States“, „Inner Voices“ or „Introjects“ | 163 |
| 6 Homework | 167 |
| 7 Transfer: The Generalisation of Speaking Ability | 171 |
| 8 Crisis and Resistance | 174 |
| 9 The End of the Therapy: Evaluation and Departure | 179 |
| Part VI – Cooperation with Relatives and Experts | 183 |
| 1 Family and Silence | 184 |
| 2 Cooperation with Parents and Relatives | 187 |
| 2.1 Principles for Working with Parents | 187 |
| 2.2 Special Aspects of Working Together | 189 |
| 2.3 Issues of Frequent Concern to Parents | 191 |
| 3 Mutism and School | 201 |
| 4 Cooperation with Other Professionals | 203 |
| Part VII – Case Report | 207 |
| Lui, the Class and I | 208 |
| Summary of the Case Studies | 216 |
| Bibliography | 224 |
| Index | 241 |
