Muteness

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Muteness is a speech disorder in which a person lacks the power of articulating speech. The term "speech-impaired" is now preferred; however, much as "visually impaired" does not necessarily mean that a person is blind, someone who is speech impaired may not be mute. Selective mutism is a DSM-IV diagnosis that refers to an anxiety disorder in which people are unable to speak in situations causing social anxiety, but are fluent in speech in more comfortable situations. Other people may choose to become avowedly mute. This is usually, but not always, for religious reasons.

See also

• Aphonia
• Selective mutism
• Deaf-mute
• Speech disorder
• Funeral mute
• Silent protagonist

References

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Last updated on Monday March 03, 2008 at 14:43:25 PST (GMT -0800)
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