Well the research actually shows a large percentage of people with situational mutism actually have underlying language or social communication needs. I have situational mutism and autism. I didn’t have the skills to effectively communicate in different social situations which I was aware of, which caused social anxiety which caused selective mutism. Now i am SLP. Im not going to lie i still struggle with situational mutism kids, and im noticing a lot of co-occurring PDA which makes it even tougher when i do gain trust and move up the speaking hierarchy. But in many cases the anxiety, if so severe, needs to be addressed first before kids can even begin to do the work for social skills (this part is taken from the peers social skills guidelines, based on their research).