My 8-year-old niece has always been incredibly shy and has what I believe called selective mutism, where she'll only talk a lot to people she's comfortable with but won't let out a word to other people. When we have dinner with my aunts and uncles or other people, the ones who aren't familiar with how shy she is will try and be playful with her and talk to her. If she gets any attention whatsoever, she starts crying. None of us know what to do. We just let her calm down and ask everybody to please leave her alone, and after about 30 minutes she's back to her normal self. Has anyone experienced this before? Any advice on what to do? I don't know if her parents believe in therapy if anybody was going to suggest that.