Ruth Perednik
Ruth Perednik (née Kestenbaum, Hebrew: רות פרדניק; born in London, October 24, 1959) is an English-born Israeli psychologist, pioneer in the field of selective mutism.
Biography
Ruth Perednik graduated from University College London (1983) and the Institute of Education, University of London (1984) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Educational Psychology, 2002). Her thesis in England was on The Relation Between Mothers’ Attentiveness to Toddlers and Child’s Attachment to Mother and in Israel she completed her thesis on Selective Mutism in Immigrant Families, under the supervision of Prof. Yoel Elizur, with a grant from the Martin and Vivian Levin Center for the Development of the Child and Adolescent. Ruth Perednik taught at the Lincoln School, and at the Yehuda Halevi Teacher’s Training College, Argentina (1986–1987), where she lectured on Educational Psychology. She resides in the outskirts of Jerusalem with her husband, Gustavo Perednik; they have five children.
Expertise
Ruth Perednik has been specializing in the treatment of children with Selective Mutism and other anxiety disorders over the past 20 years. She has developed a treatment method for Selective Mutism based on cognitive behavioral techniques, in the framework of her work in the Jerusalem Psychological Services in the Jerusalem Municipality. Perednik heads a treatment clinic for children with Selective Mutism. She has developed a Selective Mutism treatment manual which has been published in English, and a Hebrew language treatment manual together with Professor Yoel Elitzur, of the Hebrew University.
Publications
• Prevalence and Description of Selective Mutism in Immigrant and Native Families: A Controlled Study, Yoel Elizur & Ruth Perednik, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Volume 42, 2003, Issue 12, pages 1451-1459.
• Neuroses are not Religious, Nekuda, Jerusalem, 2009
• Still Waters Run Deep – a Comprehensive Selective Mutism Treatment Manual for Parents, Teachers and Therapists, 2010.