my daughter stopped speaking three months ago she is 5 anyone help?

Question

she has just started saying dad,.b4 this happened she spoke very well.she is seeing a phycologist soon.

Answer 1

You need to have her evaluated by your pediatric physician, speech therapist, and/or psychologist/psychiatrist immediately. Interventions need to be put into place quickly as this is the developmental window for language acquisition.

There are several disorders that are of significant concern, including pervasive developmental disorders: such as Rett's syndrome and Childhood Distintigrative disorder, both of which have significant consequences and occur with other behavioral and social changes in addition to communication problems. These occur after a period of relatively normal development, followed by marked decline or what is known as "Regressive" development. While she is somewhat older for these disorder, if she has had previous social and behavioral issues that began to emerge around age 3 and 4 then these are possible.

Selective mutism is a disorder that occurs when the child refuses to speak in certain situations, but otherwise communicates in developmentally appropriate ways on other situations. There are many possible causes of this type of language loss including underlying child abuse or other psychological struggles, particularly anxiety. Children with this type of disorder often exhibt avoidance behaviors, separation anxiety, school refusal, and have delayed language acquisition. Children with selective mutism are often tempermentally shy.

Additionally, some children develop language problems secondary to underlying audiology problems and health issues, which need to be ruled out. If, however, her communcation problems have occured in all social situations then this required immediate intervention by your family physican and an appropriate referral to a child psychologist/psychiatrist.

Best,
Katie MacDowell, M.Ed.
Masters, Counseling Psychology
Doctoral Candidate, Clinical Psychology

Answer 2

Did something traumatic happen when this began? I mean traumatic from a child's viewpoint. That could be something you believe to be trivial, like a friend moving away?

Try to get her communicating again in any way you can, with signs and drawings; but use words at the same time. Eventually, she will probably speak again. It may just take her time to adjust to whatever is going on in her mind. If she shows any signs of withdrawal, depression or anxiety then take the problem very seriously. She should get professional help from a psychologist anyway. Who should do an assessment and maybe get some idea of what caused this to happen. I hope she is better soon.

Answer 3

she must have went through some kind of trauma...you should take her and get her checked out. why did she stop talking? any time a childs behaver changes that time to put up a red flag...to me i dont wont to guess but it sounds like abuse... you dident give much information ..There are common effects or conditions that may occur following a traumatic event. Sometimes these responses can be delayed, for months or even years after the event. Often people do not initially associate their symptoms with the precipitating trauma. The following are symptoms that may result from a more commonplace, unresolved trauma, especially if there were earlier, overwhelming life experiences:

Answer 4

My advice would be to take her to a doctor right away! I have a 5 year old daughter and if she was ever quiet for two seconds, I would know that something happened!
She may have gone through or seen something that was traumatic to her and is afraid to tell you, but may tell the doctor or someone close to her like a grandparent or someone!
I would not let this go, I would take this very seriously and get her some help right away! Good luck and God bless!
Hope she feels better soon!

Answer 5

Children do not stop speaking typically.
Is she mad at you?
Has something happened to her that you might know about?
Is she feeling badly about something?
Does she get enough interaction at home with conversation and dialogue?
Does she watch too much television, where it's a one-sided dialogue?
Has she suffered any abuse?

I would have my red alert on high alert.
Take her to see her doctor and perhaps he or she can get to the bottom of why she stopped talking. It may be something as simple, but frustrating as control (she's figured out she gets more attention this way) or it could be something more severe that needs the attention of a professional.

Good luck to you.
Remember, it's not normal development for a 5 year old child to stop talking.

Answer 6

What happened three months ago? Did she suffer some sort of trauma either directly or indirectly? Have you seen the doctor with her? Was there an accident or a death? What was she like before, did she talk a lot? This is a genuine answer i hope you are genuine.

Answer 7

If you are really worried, get a referral from your local doctor to a speech therapist... it may be something as simple as voluntary mutism - not as rare as people may think.

Give your girl some paper and colour pens, observe any pictures she does; ask her to draw a picture of her and family, note the positions.

Ask her if her throat hurts...

Is she making other sounds?
It can be common at that age to make up your own sort of 'baby' language...
you can also observe her in a play group with others of her age...

Make a few observations, note them all and THEN explore the other options. It may all be temporary.

good luck.

Answer 8

My first question would be: Have she been seen by a doctor? That is extremly unusual for a five year old. Does she talk to anyone? Or is it just you?

I would think it had to be a terrible tramatic situation in her life. What has happened to cause this?

Answer 9

I'm predicting one of 2 illnesses. Either selective mutism, that is when a child refuses to talk. Normally due to extreme shyness. Or it could be autism. Take her to a doctor as soon as possible.

Answer 10

I stoped talking one when I was small for over a year. Ended up In a ward. I think it was because I was pissed off about what was said to me. Put her by some kids her age and see if that makes her talk. Like the park.