mutism
Inability to speak
Mutism is the inability or refusal to speak.
The condition may be organic—resulting from brain injury or physical abnormality—or psychological.
Selective mutism describes people, usually children, who speak normally in some situations but remain silent in others, often due to anxiety: Her selective mutism meant she never spoke at school.
Inability to vocalize
- dysphoniaImpaired voice production
- dysarthriaMotor speech muscle disorder
- apraxiaVoluntary movement execution deficit
- laryngectomyExcision of vocal apparatus
congenital · rehabilitation · diagnosis · pathology · voicelessness · nonverbal · phonation · stroke
Caused by the mind
- anxietyPersistent apprehensive distress
- traumaLasting psychological wound
- catatoniaPsychiatric movement disorder
- autismNeurodevelopmental processing difference
psychiatry · therapy · nonverbal · withdrawal · shutdown · dissociation · regression · neurodevelopmental
Inscribing one's name
- gestureCommunicative body movement
- AACSound compression format
- pointingDirecting attention somewhere
- noddingMoving head affirmatively
text-to-speech · pictograms · augmentative · expression · adaptation
Disinclined to speak
- reticenceHabitual verbal restraint
- wordlessnessLacking verbal expression
- speechlessnessInability to speak
- unspeakingNot uttering words
voicelessness · quietude · withholding · uncommunicative · tight-lipped · reserved · closemouthed · unresponsive
aphonia
Inability to vocalize
- dysphoniaImpaired voice production
- dysarthriaMotor speech muscle disorder
- apraxiaVoluntary movement execution deficit
laryngectomy · congenital · rehabilitation · diagnosis · pathology · voicelessness · nonverbal · phonation · stroke · acquired
psychogenic
Caused by the mind
- anxietyPersistent apprehensive distress
- traumaLasting psychological wound
- catatoniaPsychiatric movement disorder
autism · psychiatry · therapy · nonverbal · withdrawal · shutdown · dissociation · regression · neurodevelopmental · clinical
signing
Inscribing one's name
nodding · text-to-speech · pictograms · augmentative · expression · adaptation
taciturnity
Disinclined to speak
- reticenceHabitual verbal restraint
- wordlessnessLacking verbal expression
- speechlessnessInability to speak
unspeaking · voicelessness · quietude · withholding · uncommunicative · tight-lipped · reserved · closemouthed · unresponsive · stonewalling
- catatoniacatalepsy, waxy flexibility, stupor, posturing, negativism
- behaviorshabit, aggressive, agitation, conduct, passive
- silencequiet, silent, hush, stillness, soundless
- disordersADHD, disorder, anxiety, dysfunction, autism
- Mental Disordersschizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, PTSD
- neurological symptomsnumbness, tremor, paralysis, aphasia, ataxia
mutismspeech
Oral communication ability
vocalization · verbalization · speaking · utterance · articulation
mutismloquacity
Excessive inclination to speak
loquaciousness · talkativeness · garrulousness · volubility · verbosity
- selective mutismAnxiety disorder preventing speech
- palm mutingDeadening guitar strings by touch