More than words" project

Evaluation of Dortmund Mutism Therapy (DortMuT)

Individual case studies on the success of therapy in Dortmund Mutism Therapy

Dortmund Mutism Therapy (DortMuT) is now one of the established therapy methods in speech therapy intervention for children with selective mutism in Germany. In order to enable affected children to participate independently in their life contexts, the integrative therapy approach places particular emphasis on a child's entire communicative behavior. Empirical evidence of the effectiveness of DortMuT is not yet available.

Due to the heterogeneous symptoms of selective mutism in children, the evaluation of intervention measures focuses primarily on the implementation of multiple controlled individual case studies. An observation instrument (Interaction Analysis for the Documentation of Therapy in Mutism; InterDoT) is currently being developed and tested in cooperation between the Speech Therapy Outpatient Clinic (SpA) and the Department of Inclusive Education with a Focus on Language at the University of Bremen to analyze the success of therapy in Dortmund mutism therapy.

Bahrfeck, K., Subellok, K., & Starke, A. (2023). Mutism. In A. Mayer & T. Ulrich (Eds.), Speech therapy with children (pp. 480-520). Reinhardt.

Rademacher, K., Böse, J., Subellok, K., Starke, A. (2023). Therapy success in mutism therapy - Development and testing of an observation instrument for the analysis of communicative behavior in children. Research Language(2).116-129.

Starke, A. & Subellok, K. (2023). Mutism. In Ulrich, T. & Mayer, A. (Eds.), Studienbuch Sprachheilpädagogik (pp. 306-317). Kohlhammer.

Subellok, K., & Winterfeld, I. (2023). I want - I don't want.... Behavioral ambivalences in Dortmund Mutism Therapy (DortMuT) with schoolchildren. In U. Ritterfeld, K. Subellok, E. Wimmer, & A.-L. Scherger (Eds.), Impairments and resources of language and communication: Practice-relevant findings from teaching and research at TU Dortmund University (pp. 302-321). Open Access Publication, Eldorado TU Dortmund. https://doi. org/10.17877/DE290R-23124.2

Winterfeld, I., & Subellok, K. (2023). "I don't like it!" A selectively mutistic girl learns to express her needs in daycare. In U. Ritterfeld, K. Subellok, E. Wimmer, & A.-L. Scherger (Eds.), Impairments and resources of language and communication: Practice-relevant findings from teaching and research at TU Dortmund University (pp. 279-301). Open Access Publication, Eldorado TU Dortmund. https://doi.org/10.17877/DE290R-23124.2

Starke, A., Subellok, K., & Pickhinke, I. (2018). Supporting selectively mutistic children in the school context - results from two controlled individual case studies. In Jungmann, T., Gierschner, B., Meindl, M., & Sallat, St. (Eds.), Language and educational horizons. Perceiving - Describing - Expanding (pp. 351-358). Idstein (Schulz-Kirchner).