What advice do you have when working with, and assessing, selectively mute/non-verbal pupils?

There is no reason to expect non-verbal/selectively mute pupils to read aloud or say the sounds aloud. They have chosen not to speak and may choose to speak at some point but asking them to do so won't help this happen sooner.

If they are speaking at home then you could ask their parent/carers to record them saying the sounds/reading the words. Please continue to use the images to assess their reading. Images are provided for assessment.

Please ensure the children who are non-verbal are placed with verbal children of the same book level in the reading practice sessions. They can read without speaking. You can check they are reading the words by asking them to point to specific words.