Question for the docs here re: mute character

Leva · Apr 6, 2009

Okay, setting: late 1800's equivalent fantasy world.

Need a good *medical* explanation for a boy who is unable to speak but has normal hearing, and average or above average intelligence. He should be able to speak a few words with great difficulty (because I need him to be able to say the heroine's name, albeit with difficulty), can grunt, but generally communicates by hand gesture or, if the person happens to be literate, by writing. Gets people's attention by whistling.

If it's a genetic syndrome, a few other issues, even obvious physical issues, would be fine as long as he's able to be fairly physically active. (He's well known as an extremely skilled horseman -- horses are easier for him to communicate to than people!) He needs excellent eyesight.

I can leave it as a mystery ... but I'd like to know for *me* what's wrong with him.

Hmm. If there's a syndrome that would give him very distinctive facial features and leave him unable to speak ... that would work REALLY well for plot purposes.

(Ever have a character launch himself or herself full born, and with attached plot, into your head? He just tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Hi! I'm the star of your next story. Glad to meet you." ... only he did it silently. *grin*)

-- Leva

FennelGiraffe · Apr 6, 2009

Cleft palate

ETA: I'm not a doctor

Rabe · Apr 6, 2009

Didn't I read an article, story or something about a woman who was autistic and worked with cows? Due to her autism she was better with cows than she was with people and wound up developing a new method for cow slaughter that made the cows less anxious/scared and improved the beef industry?

Could something like that work for your story? Maybe not full on autism, but something closely related. Where he CAN speak, he just doesn't?

Rabe...

Leva · Apr 7, 2009

I'm not sure that a cleft palate would work -- he could probably speak, just with some weird enunciation at times.

He's socially savvy and very much in tune with what everyone else is thinking/feeling.

He's the romantic lead in a somewhat unusual romance. *grin*

I may just assume he had a stroke as an infant, and it affected his spoken speech. He comprehends fine, and can read/write, he just has difficulty speaking words. Dunno.

shokadh · Apr 7, 2009

Here are some possibilities:

People can stop talking from personal trauma. It's called "selective mutism," and it means that they have the ability to talk they just don't use it. Similarly, there is "conversion disorder," which is usually an effect of trauma also. This is when real, physical symptoms (such as muteness) occur, but with no medical explanation for them. There is also "physical muteness," which is when a person is born with or develops serious damage to their vocal chords, causing them to be unable to speak. Finally, muteness can be a side effect of being born deaf. Since a deaf-born person can't hear sounds, they can't learn to mimic them.

Kitty Pryde · Apr 7, 2009

I will suggest polymicrogyria. It can be mild or quite severe. It's a genetic disorder. Here's a writer who blogs about his daughter who has it. She can do most regular kid stuff but has little to no intelligible speech. It's a sort of condition that one could potentially survive in the 1800s.

A likewise mild case of Treacher-Collins syndrome might work too. It's a rare genetic disorder that causes distinctive facial features. Again, a mild of case of it could cause an inability to speak, and could be survivable in the 1800s.

Those are the only two I can think of that meet all your requirements.

Can I suggest that someone who is only able to say a few words with difficulty probably won't be able to whistle (because you have to hold a precise mouth shape to do so) and would probably get people's attention by saying "EY!"

PS

Didn't I read an article, story or something about a woman who was autistic and worked with cows? Due to her autism she was better with cows than she was with people and wound up developing a new method for cow slaughter that made the cows less anxious/scared and improved the beef industry?

Could something like that work for your story? Maybe not full on autism, but something closely related. Where he CAN speak, he just doesn't?

Yep, that would be Temple Grandin. As an adult she is articulate and speaks to people easily. As a child, she couldn't talk until a speech therapist trained her/forced her to do so.

PPS I'm not a doctor. I used to work at a summer camp with loads of kids with rare disorders.

BarbaraKE · Apr 7, 2009

Maybe you could just have him have a very bad stutter. It would not show physically but meets the other requirements.

loiterer · Apr 8, 2009

shokadh said:
Here are some possibilities:

People can stop talking from personal trauma. It's called "selective mutism," and it means that they have the ability to talk they just don't use it.

I belive you're describing 'elective' mutism here. 'Selective' mutism is a situation where, for example, someone will speak only to one person but never in the company of anyone else. In 'elective' mutism they typically don't speak at all.

RJK · Apr 9, 2009

Selective mutism was demonstrated in the "Singing Frog" cartoon.
Why not have your character have brain damage in his speech center. He can make noises but can't form words.

Carmy · Apr 9, 2009

Leva said:
(Ever have a character launch himself or herself full born, and with attached plot, into your head? He just tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Hi! I'm the star of your next story. Glad to meet you." ... only he did it silently. *grin*)
-- Leva

All the flipping time. I wish they'd leave me alone! They tell me what happens at the end and then let me get on with it.

Is there a chance that something traumatic happened in the boy's life that would cause him to become mute?

Barb D · Apr 9, 2009

Sounds similar to the book The Silent Boy by Lois Lowry.

JulieHowe · Apr 10, 2009

(Ever have a character launch himself or herself full born, and with attached plot, into your head? He just tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Hi! I'm the star of your next story. Glad to meet you." ... only he did it silently. *grin*)

Yep. My existing characters have also been known to switch ethnicity and religions without asking me first.

willfulone · Apr 10, 2009

I am not a doctor. But, I do have a degree in Speech and Language Pathology. So, I may be able to offer some help. Maybe not.

Mutism (of some form) is likely going to be the best way for you to go. If I understand your posts correctly. Likely, Elective or Selective will be best for your MC.

Mutism is the inability or unwillingness to speak. Mutism is a rare childhood condition characterized by a consistent failure to speak in situations where talking is expected.

Akinetic mutism is a variety of stupor in which the patient is unable to talk or carry out purposeful behaviour but may lie with eyes open.

Elective mutism is a condition in which children do not speak because they do not want to. True elective mutism may be a reaction to a traumatic event.

Selective mutism is a condition in which a child who is fluent with language frequently fails to speak in certain situations where language is expected.

Mutism is believed to be caused by anxiety experienced in social situations where the child may be called upon to speak.
~~~
Speech (in simple terms) is muscles/structural placement (tongue, jaws, teeth, lips, etc) in combination with breaths to make phonetic sounds for speech. Or articulation.

Brain injuries (even mild ones) do not compromise speaking alone. They compromise expressive and/or receptive language or global insult overall. There is not one brain injury that I can recall studying (does not mean there is not one, I just never heard of one) that allowed for the person to speak when they needed to, but no other time. Not a brain injury. Though I have worked with many who just chose not to talk.

Good luck!

Christine

Stijn Hommes · Apr 12, 2009

shokadh said:
Here are some possibilities:

People can stop talking from personal trauma. It's called "selective mutism," and it means that they have the ability to talk they just don't use it. Similarly, there is "conversion disorder," which is usually an effect of trauma also. This is when real, physical symptoms (such as muteness) occur, but with no medical explanation for them. There is also "physical muteness," which is when a person is born with or develops serious damage to their vocal chords, causing them to be unable to speak. Finally, muteness can be a side effect of being born deaf. Since a deaf-born person can't hear sounds, they can't learn to mimic them.

*WARNING possible spoilers ahead*

The "Roman Mysteries" series by Caroline Lawrence has a mute beggar boy in it called Lupus who can't talk because he had his tongue cut out. When they adapted those books for television, they probably found the idea too gruesome for daytime children's television, so instead they had him suffer a traumatic event and go mute because he feared retaliations. It did the job until the perpetrator died. In the adapted version that lifted the threat. When he still didn't speak, the adaptation fell flat for me on that point.

Ulee_Lhea · Apr 14, 2009

I thought of severe apraxia of speech. That's where someone has difficulty speaking due to motor difficulties with their mouth and lips. Willfulone, do you have any insights on how that would apply to this character? I'm thinking it would have to be pretty severe . . . not sure if there would be any facial features associated.

Selective/Elective mutism probably wouldn't work, IMHO. Selective mutism is an anxiety disorder. A boy would be able to speak normally, even precociously, to trusted others, but might freeze up in other situations where communication is expected. He definitely wouldn't grunt or labor to produce speech in the presence of others. He'd remain silent. So to me, it doesn't really fit.

(IIRC, Elective Mutism is actually the former name of Selective Mutism. The name was changed to provide a more accurate description).

I'm not a doctor, but I work with a couple of kids with SM.

Anecdotal: Someone I know had a two-year-old that hadn't said a word yet. She also did very little babbling as a baby. All her non-language development was on target, and her hearing seemed normal (she responded nonverbally to directions, suggestions, stories). They were referred to a specialist who diagnosed her with cleft palate! Yup, in this day and age, it got past educated parents and pediatricians for a full two years. So that's another possibility in my mind.

Could a kid with apraxia or cleft palate whistle by putting their fingers in their mouth and blowing? I'll let the real experts weigh in.

Leva · Apr 14, 2009

Thanks, guys.

He definitely would *not* be suffering from an anxiety disorder -- he's very laid back, very stable, very grounded. Also, he hasn't suffered any *major* trauma in his life.

I think I've decided on simply going with an unnamed genetic mutation that causes significant deformities of the larynx and throat and/or speech centers. He communicates by writing and the odd bit of informal signing.

It's a science fiction story that will read somewhat like a fantasy at first. (The character informed me, with some annoyance, when I tried to give him a wizard companion, that he doesn't believe in magic! So the companion is a rogue scientist who got into trouble with the government by asking questions he shouldn't have.)

It's set on a backwater, isolated world that was colonized by a generation ship and has been out of touch with the rest of the world for a couple millennia. So you have a population which started with a relatively small gene pool and, centuries after arrival, are still dealing with the genetic issues ... The protag is -- was -- a king's son and heir. The king tried to have him killed when it became clear that the boy was suffering from a genetic mutation. The queen ran away with him, choosing her son over everything else. The story picks up when the boy is an adult, oblivious to his past, and evil nasty aliens are invading and he's trying to save heroine. (Who returns the favor a few times.) That he's mute is a complicating factor -- but he refuses to let anything hold him back when he's got a goal in mind.

Anyway ... thanks for the input, everyone. This one's going to be fun to write.

Leva · Apr 22, 2009

Quick update -- the first chapter of this novella is up at http://ljmouse.livejournal.com.

Thought ya'll might want to see the end result of the question.

And thank you for all the helpful answers!

Izunya · Apr 22, 2009

Rabe said:
Didn't I read an article, story or something about a woman who was autistic and worked with cows? Due to her autism she was better with cows than she was with people and wound up developing a new method for cow slaughter that made the cows less anxious/scared and improved the beef industry?

Her name is Temple Grandin and she's not a very good model for this particular problem. I heard her speak at a conference and spoke to her a little bit afterwards. She's a bit abrupt and her body language is clearly autistic, but she's also very articulate.

Temple Grandin didn't just develop humane slaughter methods. She also created a "squeeze machine" designed to get autistic people accustomed to touch. She's a brilliant and impressive woman. But autism is quirky enough that I personally wouldn't make a character autistic unless I really, truly wanted an autistic character—does that make any sense at all? It's not just a shortcut to mutism, is what I'm trying to say. The body language alone is distinctive enough that I can sometimes pick it out at a distance. (Interesting scrap of anecdata: apparently if you take tai kwon do, you stop "walking autistically." I had a student who took it over the summer, and the first time I saw him walk down the hall the next year I barely recognized him. He didn't look any different but his walk changed that much.) Then there's the sensory weirdness, which might really affect someone writing a romance. Autistic people can and do have sexual relationships but many of them can't stand light touches, which must change the feel of certain things, quite literally . . .

Anyway, this is one of my subjects, which means I can probably go on about it far too long. In summary: Temple Grandin. Is brilliant with animals. Not mute, though.

Izunya

Question for the docs here re: mute character

Leva

FennelGiraffe

It's green they say

Rabe

the living dead

Leva

shokadh

Now serving Table for 300

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue

BarbaraKE

loiterer

RJK

Sheriff Bullwinkle the Poet says:

Carmy

Barb D

JulieHowe

Spent the night with Jack Daniels

willfulone

I am a zebra...

Stijn Hommes

Know what you write...

Ulee_Lhea

Fear no darkness.

Leva

Leva

Izunya