Selective Mutism Awareness Week in Japan?

Selective Mutism Information and Research Association (SMIRA), a UK based support group for selective mutism, run Selective Mutism Awareness Week from October 5th to 12th.

According to the website of SMIRA, it did many activities to raise awareness of selective mutism. One effort is working on the media to cover selective mutism. Thanks to the effort, many news articles about selective mutism were published in the UK. You can find articles at http://news.google.com/.

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A Canadian support group for selective mutism coincided with the campaign. It held a Selective Mutism Awareness Walk.

But no Japanese support group coincided with the campaign, because there are no support groups in Japan that have enough power to run such massive campaign yet. I expect Japanese support groups to conduct such big campaign someday.

Index of SM in Japan

Han note, Eye contact, Majime

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Chapter 5 Selective mutism and my high school years

Han note, Eye contact, Majime

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[Han note]

My homeroom teacher made us write Han note. Han note is a notebook. Han is a Japanese that means group. Our classmates were divided into, as I remember, 5-7 groups. Each members of the groups wrote a diary in rotation.

Although I had selective mutism, I could express my thoughts and feelings in writing. I was a talkative man only in the Han note.

[Eye contact and nodding]

I had been in the habit of keeping eye contact with teachers when I listened in class since early times. Because of the habit, I didn't avoid eye contact although I had selective mutism. That may be a kind of behavioral therapy.

In addition, I began to nod at them. Keeping the habit, an English grammar teacher foud me and got close to me. After I became a sophomore, I still nodded at teachers in class. Similarly, an Engilsh teacher and a Japanese history teacher found me and got close to me. In this way, thanks to my habit of nodding, I could get acquainted with teachers although I hardly spoke.

[Majime]

I was viewed as a very Majime (serious, earnest) person. One former classmate said, "I've never seen such a Majime man!" I don't know whether my selective mutism caused me to be Majime or not.

Here is one story about my Majime personality.

I don't know who clean high school in the US, but in my Japanese high school, students were supposed to clean their school (I guess most Japanese high school students also were). Our classmates were divided into some cleaning groups, and I was assigned to a school entrance group.

I cleaned school entrance eagerly. But other members of the group didn't. They gradually neglected their work. One day I cleaned school entrance by myself. A senior teacher found me and said, "Why do you clean by yourself?" That caused trouble.

(To be continued)

Index of SM story

You're not the only one

I once asked my mother's advice for my selective mutism. But she said, "I'm also not good at talking. (So, you're not the only one who're not good at talking)"

She didn't understand my selective mutism. She was a reticent person, but hasn't suffered from selective mutism. She confused a reticent child with selectively mute child.

In Japan, when someone is troubled by something and whine about that, people sometimes said to his or her, "You're not the only one who're troubled by such things. Everyone is troubled by and has patience with such things." Some people may add, "Don't be a big baby!"

Such words sometimes ease his or her mind or encourage his or her to bear the hardship. But they also may trivialize his or her difficulty.

In terms of selective mutism, I guess a small proportion of children suffer from such difficulty. So, it's inappropriate to say to selectively mute children, "You're not the only one ..."

But few people understand selective mutism. So, some people may say such a thing to selectively mute children.