Yesterday (Saturday 7th March 2015) I attended a conference about selective mutism run by SMIRA (The Selective Mutism Information and Research Association), a selective mutism organization based in Leicester. The conference took place in St. James the Greater Church Hall in Leicester and ran from 10am to 4pm, featuring presentations from parents, professionals, and SMIRA's team alike. Here is a kind of overview of the day for those who were unable to attend.
The day began with a quick welcome message from Lindsay Whittington, SMIRA's Co-ordinator then the first speaker - Phil Thomason - took to the stage. He is SMIRA's International Representative, Facebook Group Administrator, and the father of two children - one who has overcome selective mutism and one who is currently showing signs of the condition. He spoke about his personal experience with raising children with SM in a multilingual environment, "spaces" for an SM child, change, how SM is being dealt with internationally, and the difference between reacting and pro-acting in regards to SM. For those who would like to see his presentation slides they are available for download in SMIRA's Facebook group.
Phil's presentation ran until 12:15pm when there was a lunch break. The food was great and during the break we got to have a quick look at the church building and the books and other SM-related merchandise that were for sale and on display. My parents got to speak with many other families who were in a similar boat to us, as well as get some advice from professionals and SMIRA's team. We even met a family who live in the same city as us.
The break ended at 1:30pm and Kate Jones - a Music Therapist - gave a presentation about why she believes music therapy can be beneficial to people with SM. Her Facebook group is here.
After Kate's presentation, Lucy Nathanson began her's at 2:15pm. Lucy is a Child Therapist who runs the organization, Confident Children which provides therapy and workshops for children who are shy, have low confidence, or suffer from selective mutism. She spoke about how she feels SM should be dealt with in a school setting, such as making it a whole-school intervention rather than just involving the teachers who work with the child regularly as well as appointing the child with a key-worker who is trained in dealing with SM. Lucy has uploaded a YouTube video outlining the basic do's and don'ts of interacting with a child who has selective mutism which she recommends be shown to all members of staff at the child's school. Her website can be found here.
The final presentation of the day took place at 2:30pm and was by Vicky Roe, a member of SMIRA'S team. It was about recent updates to the SEND code of practice and how this may affect SM children.
Finally there was a discussion led by SMIRA's team. The discussion was rather short as a lot of the questions had already been answered through out the day. We hung around a little longer afterwards to fuel up on snacks for the journey home and to have a chat with some of the professionals and other families.
After that the conference came to a close. My parents and I very much enjoyed the conference and would like to send a big thank you to SMIRA's team, all of the speakers, and everyone else who made the event possible. All of the presentations were very informative and helpful (particularly Lucy Nathanson's) and it's nice to know that there are people who are or have been going through a lot of the same things I have and that there might be hope for me after all.
