I recently made a Japanese blog about socially withdrawn children.
http://swjournal77.blogspot.com/
Social withdrawal is "the consistent (across situations and over time) display of all forms of solitary behavior when encountering familiar and/or unfamiliar peers.(Rubin, Burgess, & Coplan, 2002)"
According to earlier studies, some children withdraw from peer interaction because they are shy even though they would like to engage in social interaction.
I guess many selectively mute children also have social withdrawal. They are too anxious to interact with others. In fact, I have seen many former or current selective mutism sufferers who didn't or don't have friends. And I was not an exception. But I have also seen many former or current sufferers who made friends. Even if they are shy, they don't necessarily avoid interacting with peers. I want to know precisely peer interaction of selectively mute children.
[Reference]
Rubin, K. H., Burgess, K. B., & Coplan, R. (2002). Social inhibition and withdrawal in childhood. In P.K. Smith & C. Hart (Eds), Handbook of Childhood Social Development. London: Blackwell.
