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Webinar- Assessing Selective Mutism: Tools for Gathering Information, Making Diagnoses and Monitoring Progress
May 1, 2023 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm EDT
Live Webinar with Q & A! General registration is free!
Speakers: Lindsey Bergman, PhD, Dr. Angelika Gensthaler, Steven Kurtz, PhD, ABPP, Elisa Shipon-Blum, DO
This webinar is geared toward treating professionals.
This webinar has been approved for 1.5 CE credits. For those seeking CE credit, registration is $20.
For more information and to register, click here:
In the mental health field, it is widely acknowledged that good treatment stems from good assessment (De Los Reyes and Langer, 2018). Even when using empirically supported interventions, the effectiveness of a treatment plan for a particular individual may be limited by the nature and quality of the data used to develop it. While many assessment tools focused on youth anxiety broadly have been published and widely studied (Etkin, Shimshoni, Lebowitz, and Silverman, 2021; Etkin, Lebowitz, and Silverman, 2021), there are far fewer measures specifically designed to evaluate symptoms of selective mutism.
This panel, which will be geared towards treating professionals, brings together four experts, each of whom has developed a selective mutism-specific assessment tool. Dr. Lindsay Bergman will present on the Selective Mutism Questionnaire (Bergman, Keller, Piacentini, and Bergman, 2008), a parent-report measure which has widely been used in research and clinical settings. Dr. Angelika Gensthaler will present on the Frankfurt Scales of Selective Mutism (Gensthaler et al., 2020). The FSSM also is a parent-report questionnaire; it includes a diagnostic scale, which can differentiate between selective mutism and social anxiety, as well as a severity scale, which reflects impairment caused by selective mutism symptoms. Dr. Elisa Shipon Blum will discuss the Social Anxiety Communication Inventory (SCAI) and Dr. Steven Kurtz will discuss the Selective Mutism Behavioral Observation Task (SM-BOT), a structured, play-based assessment, in which a child’s ease of speaking to a parent in a new setting, to a parent in the presence of a stranger, and directly to a stranger is evaluated.
Panelists will provide an overview of each measure, including the research base as relevant, and discuss how treating professionals can incorporate these tools into their clinical practice.
Learning Objectives:
- Attendees will be able to describe how to use four different instruments in the assessment of selective mutism.
- Attendees will be able to determine which SM assessment tools are most appropriate to use in different clinical contexts.
- Attendees will be able to list three limitations of current methods for assessing selective mutism.
- Attendees will be able to explain how to use SM assessment measures to monitor progress throughout treatment.
Speakers:
Lindsey Bergman, PhD
Lindsey Bergman is the Director of Intensive Outpatient Programming at Wavemind Clinic in Los Angeles, CA and has been the recipient of federal grants for the study of selective mutism. She conducted the first randomized controlled study of behavioral treatment for SM and authored dozens of peer-reviewed research articles and chapters on selective mutism as well as pediatric anxiety and OCD. Dr. Bergman was on the faculty of the UCLA Psychiatry Department for over 20 years where she conducted clinical research and developed training curricula for psychiatry fellows and psychology interns.
Dr. Angelika Gensthaler
Angelika Gensthaler is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and researcher on Selective Mutism, currently working as a lecturer, supervisor and in the training of child and adolescent psychotherapists.
Steven Kurtz, PhD, ABPP
Steven Kurtz, PhD, ABPP specializes in assessing and treating child anxiety, such as selective mutism and social phobia, as well as externalizing behaviors, such as ADHD and oppositionality. Dr. Kurtz is the original developer of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy Adapted for Selective Mutism (PCIT-SM), an empirically supported therapy for selective mutism now used worldwide and created the renowned Mighty Mouth Kids and Brave Buddies intensive SM treatment programs. He is a Global Trainer in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). As an expert commentator, he has appeared on numerous programs addressing child mental health, including NBC’s Today, CBS’s The Early Show and PBS’s Keeping Kids Healthy and was featured in the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s ADD & Lovin’ It. He is a Board Certified Specialist in Behavioral and Cognitive Psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology and volunteers time in the leadership of numerous organizations such as the Selective Mutism Association.
Elisa Shipon-Blum, DO
Elisa Shipon-Blum DO, is the President and Director of the Selective Mutism Anxiety and Related Disorders Treatment Center (SMart Center) located in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. She is the Founder and Director Emeritus of the Selective Mutism Association (SMA) and a Director of the Selective Mutism Research Institute (SMRI), a foundation established to study Dr. Shipon-Blum’s theories and treatment methodologies on Selective Mutism. In addition, Dr Shipon-Blum is Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychology & Family Medicine at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. She is a board certified physician who specializes in Selective Mutism.
Dr. Shipon-Blum practices in Jenkintown, PA, and has developed the evidenced-based Social Communication Anxiety Treatment (S-CAT)® from her years studying and researching individuals with Selective Mutism. She consults worldwide with families, treating professionals, and educators, and has helped thousands of children from around the world overcome Selective Mutism. Based on her successful S-CAT® program, Dr. E also created CommuniCamp™, an intensive group treatment program for children with Selective Mutism, social anxiety, and extreme shyness.This webinar is brought to you by the Selective Mutism Association and was made possible by a generous grant from the Gordon and Marilyn Macklin Foundation, Inc.
