‘That’s not Maebel, she’s so fun’: the rising number of children who are afraid to talk

Nicole Caplan and her daughter Maebel, who recovered her confidence to speak after treatment in the US to overcome selective mutism. Photograph: Penny Stephens/The Guardian

When Nicole Caplan’s daughter Maebel was four, she was a cheeky child “who would talk to pretty much anyone”. So Caplan was at a loss in 2021 when “slowly, her communication just stopped with quite a few people”.

At first, Caplan didn’t worry when Maebel didn’t want to talk to strangers, but she became concerned when it happened with family too. “She just stopped talking over time to her grandfather – to my dad – and her auntie and uncles and cousins, and pretty much everyone, except me or my mum.”