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Selective mutism (SM) is a childhood disorder characterized by failure to speak in social situations, despite there being an expectation to speak and the capacity to do so. There has been a focus on elucidating the differences between SM and anxiety disorder (ANX) in the recent literature. Although children with SM exhibit more symptoms at school than at home, the assessment of SM typically does not involve teacher reports. There is also a lack of research to help us better understand how to best support students with SM in the classroom, and linking assessment to intervention. The "Teacher Telephone Interview: Selective Mutism and Anxiety in the School Setting" (TTI-SM) was developed by a group of researchers across three large children's hospitals in Canada, within specialized ANXs Clinics, with the goal of addressing several of these diagnostic and treatment issues. Child participants (ages 6-11) were referred for SM (n = 19) or ANX (n = 10). Findings revealed that the SM subscale of the TTI-SM has acceptable psychometric properties. Scores on the SM subscale between the two groups of children were statistically significant t(29) = -3.67, p < 0.001, ?[superscript2] = 0.33, suggesting that the SM subscale was able to distinguish between children with SM and ANX. Given the promising findings, and possible uses of this tool for assessment and intervention, the TTI-SM warrants further research. The role of the teacher in the assessment of children with SM and anxiety disorders, and future directions are discussed.

Although teachers are acutely aware of variance in students' literacy needs, many are unsure exactly how to support these needs in the dynamic classroom. This study reports on compelling evidence from Grade 2/3 classrooms in which teachers differentiated instruction in a variety of ways to benefit all students. In particular, teachers provided additional scaffolding for struggling literacy learners by offering a menu of tiered work products, expert tutoring and additional supports. At the base of instruction were common essential understandings grounded in best literacy practices: shared reading and writing, guided reading, excellent texts and literacy centres. The article emphasises the critical importance of responding to the needs of diverse and at-risk learners in the regular classroom. Differentiated instruction is suggested as a powerful organising framework in the language arts classroom.

Selective mutism (SM) is a rare and complex disorder associated with anxiety symptoms and speech-language deficits; however, the nature of these language deficits has not been studied systematically. A novel cross-disciplinary assessment protocol was used to assess anxiety and nonverbal cognitive, receptive language, and expressive narrative abilities in 7 children with SM and a comparison group of 7 children with social phobia (SP). The children with SM produced significantly shorter narratives than children with SP, despite showing normal nonverbal cognitive and receptive language abilities. The findings suggest that SM may involve subtle expressive language deficits that may influence academic performance and raise additional questions for further research. The assessment procedure developed for this study may be potentially useful for language clinicians.