Elective mutism: origins in stranger anxiety and selective attention.

Through a focus on the events of early infancy, the author interprets elective mutism on the basis of the infant's responses to discrepancies from expected stimuli. Initially, the child's silence derives from a "freezing" of action when exposed to perceived danger. Subsequently, aberrant or fearful stimuli are minimized by the child's apparent unresponsiveness. Through identification with the parent, the child imbues elective mutism with information value as a pause to signal impending communication. Mutism later represents an identification that is displaced from the parent to "stranger" adults.