Episode 82 of Unspoken Words brings listeners inside CommuniCamp for a roundtable between Dr. Elisa Shipon-Blum and three families raising kids with selective mutism, each at a different stage: a couple whose 13-year-old is nearing full recovery after an early setback, a mom whose 8-year-old has progressed everywhere except the classroom, and a couple starting treatment days before their 6-year-old begins a new school. Together they explore not how to make a child talk, but how to prepare them for school — and the world — on their own timeline.
The conversation moves from nervous, bracing parents to real hope, anchored in a reframe Dr. E keeps returning to: this isn't "selective mutism," it's "words that get stuck," and that shift in language changes how a school or classmate responds. She traces the idea to her daughter Sophie, whose bat mitzvah project — writing down the unspoken words behind her own silence — gave the podcast its name. The lesson: acknowledging a child's fear instead of dismissing it, and handing them control of their own story, does more than any script.
The heart of the episode is practical. Parents and Dr. E trade strategies for the weeks before school starts — walking the halls, meeting teachers early, sending an "about my child" worksheet — plus two mental models for breaking big moments down: the "train ride," which adds one buddy at a time, and the staircase reminder that nobody leaps straight to the second floor. One mom traces her son's path from near-total silence at home as a toddler to being the class clown who still can't speak at school — illustrating "speech phobia" and the ritual sound approach built to treat it, down to the detail that he can say "hop" all day but freezes on a real word like "cat." The group also touches on 504s, IEPs, and homeschooling.
The episode closes on one thread: progress isn't measured by how quickly a child starts talking, but by how well the adults around them learn to meet them where they are — one micro step, one unspoken word at a time.
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Chapters:
(01:47) Meet the Families: "Don't Wait, Facilitate" and Walking the Halls Before Day One
(11:03) Know Your Strengths: Playdates, Video Calls, and Finding Words for Other Parents
(18:13) Words Get Stuck, Not Choices: Sophie's Bat Mitzvah Project and Giving Kids the Pen
(27:15) The Train Ride and the Staircase: Breaking Groups Into Steps (and the Truth About Homeschool)
(35:00) From 504s to "Cat": Micro Steps, the Bridge Stages, and Cracking Speech Phobia
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: https://selectivemutismcenter.org/resources/
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