In my paper, I study selective mutism and the role of social work in working with a child diagnosed with selective mutism. At the beginning of the theoretical part, I briefly present mental health, before detailing the term selective mutism – its meaning, origin, characteristics and stages as well as consequences of undetected selective mutism. I also describe the terms childhood and family. The theoretical part continues by presenting how social work contributes to the efforts to address selective mutism. I write about family social work and social and cultural work, which social work professionals consider relevant when working with a child with selective mutism and their family, who also participate in seeking solutions. In this paper, I wanted to study the life of a family whose child is diagnosed with selective mutism. In doing so, I wanted to find how well parents were familiar with selective mutism and how they perceived it, identify opportunities for social work related to it and determine parents' challenges and their cooperation with experts. I also wanted to examine what problems they have had and what they would require in coping with these problems. I studied these issues in the empirical part of the paper, by conducting interviews with nine mothers whose children had been diagnosed with selective mutism. I found that the parents had not previously been familiar with selective mutism and that they had learnt about this disorder only when their children had been diagnosed with it. They went through this period differently; they experienced fear, distress, helplessness, shock, dread and lack of understanding from other people. The parents tried to cope with this diagnosis by learning about it, seeking help from professionals, learning to communicate and trying to understand the disorder. When a child is diagnosed with selective mutism, this affects their parents' mental and physical well-being. The parents find this period very strenuous, as they have to remain strong all the time. They can seek help in different professionals, namely clinical psychologists, psychologists, pediatricians, counsellors, teachers, kindergarten teachers and social workers. They find it the most difficult to face other people regarding the disorder, other people's ignorance of selective mutism and the lack of support and help. They are unanimous when it comes to problem resolution: they would do it by making people aware about the disorder and by educating professionals in this field.
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