Muteness

Muteness means not being able to speak. A person that cannot speak is called a mute. A mute keeps the ability to hear the speech of others.^[1] If not, the person would be a deaf mute.

Muteness is a type of speech disorder. A person who chooses not to speak is said to be silent rather than mute. Slang for this (British English) is "keeping mum".

Originally, the common word dumb or dumbness used to mean "unable to speak," though was taken over to mean "unwilling to speak" or "unintelligent". So, people now prefer the term "muteness". "Dumb" is a much more common word, and might be used if it would not be misunderstood.

In general, someone who is mute may be mute for one of several different reasons: genetics, psychological, or trauma.^[1]

For children, a lack of speech may be developmental, neurological, psychological, or due to a physical disability or a communication disorder.

Adults who previously had speech and then became unable to speak: this may be due to disease, injury, damage or surgery affecting areas of the brain needed for speech. Loss of speech in adults may occur, but rarely, for psychological reasons. Damage (however caused) to the parts of the brain needed for speech is called aphasia.

Treatment or management of muteness depends on what has caused the absence of speech. A speech assessment may decide cause and treatment.^[1] Treatment of absence of speech is possible in a variety of cases. If the absence of speech is a permanent condition, a range of communication devices are available to help communication.

Speech-generating devices help people with speech deficiencies.^[2]

• Deaf-mute
• Aphasia
• Aphonia
• Autism
• Deafness
• Dysarthria