The Difficulty of Speaking - Selective Mutism No. 2

“You watch the young boy struggling to coordinate his mouth. Sometimes, sounds come out, and other times grunts. You sit at the round yellow table facing opposite him in a brightly coloured room; a teaching assistant sits there next to him, guiding him as he struggles to read out the words. As he continues to read, the TA sneaks a pupil to the table, but he can hear his peer approaching; he isn't deaf. They hope this will help him to speak in class, but as soon as he leaves this small room, he will go back to being mute. You wonder how someone can feel at ease to speak at home, but as soon as he leaves the house, he glues his mouth shut tight. Is it true: is he just shy as the staff members here suggest, or is there something more to it? Is he really a selective mute?”

In this scene, you are positioned and seated at a yellow round table. The challenge he faces is in coordinating his speech due to his verbal dyspraxia and being tongue-tied, which impacts his clearness of speech. A compassionate teaching assistant sits beside the young boy, providing gentle guidance and assistance as he grapples with pronouncing the words in a children's book that is significantly below his age group and reading level. Meanwhile, the young selective mute continues reading undisturbed.
The interior of the room, with its lively hues, creates a warm and inviting atmosphere that stands in stark contrast to the gloomy Victorian brick façade outside. Unlike the isolation I felt outside in the playground, I found solace in the warm confines of the special unit.
This scene was based on the small reading room in my special unit at primary school. Unfortunately, the special unit closed a few years after my departure and has since been demolished. Therefore, this painting serves as a nostalgic representation of the room from 14 years ago. I can vividly recall sitting on a red chair next to a yellow round table, always positioned away from the door so that students could quietly enter to listen to me read. Despite their attempts to be stealthy, I could always hear them sneaking in. The teaching assistant depicted in the painting is not based on a specific individual, but rather a combination of several TAs from my school. The books that are prominently featured in the painting are the Biff, Chip, and Kipper children's books, which were always read in our reading sessions. Additionally, the teaching assistant's hand touches a children's drawing of a green alien cat, which represents a story I wrote when I was 10 years old about the exploration and escape of an alien cat planet. Storytelling has remained a passion of mine, and I continue to enjoy it to this day.
As the viewer, you are now in the same spot where my parent once sat. In an attempt to enhance my interaction with my peers and teachers at school, my mother would interrupt her work hours to visit the school. Although the journey was arduous and time-consuming, I rarely spoke up during class. However, I did find solace in slowly expressing myself within the confines of my little circle.
My old special unit disregarded the existence of selective mutism, attributing my behaviour solely to extreme shyness. However, having experienced first-hand the symptoms and emotions associated with selective mutism, I can confidently affirm that it is a genuine condition, but it can also be cured.