That story sounded like bullshit. I didn't trust that link, "Raising Kids", so I looked up the story from more reliable sources. It's partially true. The kid has a social anxiety disorder, but has not been totally silent for ten years.

13-year-old boy breaks vow of silence after 10 years | the Daily Mail

"For four years after his tonsil operation at Basingstoke Hospital, Ben would talk only to his brother, now 12, and only then when the pair were alone.

With everyone else, he relied on written notes and hand signals to communicate.

He was diagnosed with selective mutism, a rare anxiety disorder which leaves children terrified of speaking in certain situations.

There was some progress in 2003, when a bike accident shocked him into speaking to his mother. â??Ben had always been painfully shy but it was just terrible when he wouldnâ??t talk at all,â?? Miss Brant, a shop worker, said from the family home in Liskeard, Cornwall."

The Sun Online - News: Mute Ben cured by fire crew
"He spoke only to his younger brother Sam, out of earshot of everyone else. It took a bicycle accident six years after the op to get him to talk to his mum Linda."