Publications by authors named "Gensthaler A"
Characteristics of person, place, and activity that trigger failure to speak in children with selective mutism.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry
September 2022
Article Synopsis
- Selective Mutism (SM) is an anxiety disorder where children speak freely in some situations but remain silent in others, with a study exploring triggers for this silence.
- Parents of 91 children with SM highlighted specific triggers: close interactions with certain people, unfamiliar places, and new activities were the most commonly mentioned.
- Understanding these triggers helps in recognizing underlying factors like behavioral inhibition and social anxiety, which could inform better treatment approaches for SM.
The original version of this article were unfortunately published with an error in "Methods" section. This has been corrected by publishing this correction article.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFears and fear-related cognitions in children with selective mutism.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry
September 2019
Article Synopsis
- Selective mutism (SM) is recognized as an anxiety disorder in the DSM-5 but lacks specific concrete fears associated with it, unlike other anxiety disorders.
- A study involving 124 participants examined the fears related to SM, social phobia (SP), and typical development through an online survey, where participants with SM identified fears that hinder their communication in certain situations.
- Findings revealed that 59% of reported fears were social fears, with additional fears related to making mistakes, language, and voice, highlighting the need for interventions to specifically address social fears and fear of mistakes in individuals with SM.
Article Synopsis
- Assessment of selective mutism (SM) is challenging due to the absence of effective diagnostic tools, leading to the development of the Frankfurt Scale specifically for this condition.
- A study tested this new parent-rated questionnaire on 334 individuals aged 3 to 18 with SM and other related disorders, revealing strong reliability and consistency in its measurements.
- Results showed significant differences in scores among diagnostic groups, and the scale effectively distinguished SM from other conditions, correlating well with clinician-rated severity.
Background: Selective mutism (SM) is an anxiety disorder with a close link to childhood social phobia (SP). Our studies compare behavioral problem profiles in children and adolescents with SM and SP and control groups and assess the comorbidity patterns of SM and SP.
Methods: Participants aged 3-18 years with SM (n = 95), SP (n = 74) and internalizing disorders (INT, n = 46) and a typically developing control group (CG, n = 119) were assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL); adolescents were additionally assessed with the Youth Self-Report (YSR).
Selective mutism and temperament: the silence and behavioral inhibition to the unfamiliar.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry
October 2016
Article Synopsis
- Behavioral inhibition (BI) may be an early indicator of selective mutism, but research on children with selective mutism's early behavioral traits is limited.
- A study analyzed children aged 3-18 with selective mutism, social phobia, internalizing behaviors, and healthy controls, revealing that those with selective mutism and social phobia displayed higher levels of inhibition in their early years compared to the other groups.
- The findings suggest that increased behavioral inhibition, especially towards social situations, could be a critical temperament factor linked to selective mutism, indicating a need for early screening in at-risk children.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as well as social phobia (SP), and selective mutism (SM) are characterised by impaired social interaction. We assessed the validity of the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) to differentiate between ASD, and SP/SM. Raw scores were compared in 6-18 year old individuals with ASD (N = 60), SP (N = 38), SM (N = 43), and typically developed (N = 42).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA deficit in emotion recognition has been suggested to underlie conduct problems. Although several studies have been conducted on this topic so far, most concentrated on male participants. The aim of the current study was to compare recognition of morphed emotional faces in girls with conduct problems (CP) with elevated or low callous-unemotional (CU+ vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEmotion recognition in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Atten Defic Hyperact Disord
September 2013
Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are impaired in social adaptation and display deficits in social competence. Deficient emotion recognition has been discussed to underlie these social problems. However, comorbid conduct problems have not been considered in the majority of studies conducted so far, and the influence of medication on emotion recognition has rarely been studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRetrospective assessment of behavioral inhibition in infants and toddlers: development of a parent report questionnaire.
Child Psychiatry Hum Dev
February 2013
A behaviorally inhibited temperament in early childhood has been identified as a potential risk factor for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. The purpose of our investigation was the development and evaluation of the factor structure, reliability and validity of the first retrospective parent report measure to assess behavioral inhibition in infants and toddlers. Principal Component Analysis of the Retrospective Infant Behavioral Inhibition Scale (RIBI) supported a three factor solution of the core features of BI in two unselected samples.
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