Episode image for My Child Won't Speak

Duration: 49 minutes

Fifteen-year-old Danielle has spent much of the last decade in silence, 10-year-old Megan's failure to talk at school is threatening her future, and eight-year-old Red's grandad has never heard his only grandchild say a word.

All three girls have a strange and isolating condition called selective mutism. At home they are as noisy as any other child, but with most people their anxiety about talking leaves them speechless. How will they overcome their frustrating problem and break their silence?

Last on

Wed 17 Feb 2010 01:55 BBC One except HD

  • Photo: Danielle

    Photo: Danielle

    Fifteen-year-old Danielle from Caerphilly with her mother, Christine. A year ago Danielle was still answering questions with a whiteboard but she can now open her mouth and speak.

  • Photo: Red

    Photo: Red

    In Northamptonshire, most people, including her grandfather, have never heard eight-year-old Red talk. Instead she communicates using a whiteboard, markers and a cloth.

  • Photo: Megan

    Photo: Megan

    The only place where 10-year-old Megan talks freely is at home; at school she never utters a word. Her teacher Mr Lockerby fears that she is virtually invisible in class and it's affecting her education.

  • Being Mum

    Being Mum

    This programme was part of Being Mum, a short season of documentaries which explored some of the extreme and occasionally controversial challenges facing parents today.

    Find out what was shown during the Being Mum season
  • BBC Headroom

    BBC Headroom

    Watch speech therapist Maggie Johnson discuss the phobia behind selective mutism and download the parental advice factsheet on the BBC Headroom site.

    BBC Headroom: Being Mum Season: My Child Won't Speak

Credits

Director
Barnaby Peel
Executive Producer
Nick O'Dwyer

Broadcasts

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