My 19 mo toddler keeps hitting and scratching himself. What should I do?

[fairyflipflop]

Has anyone else experiences this? My 19 month old ds has recently started hitting and scratching himself. He does it when he's frustrated, particularly when he can't get us to understand what he's trying to say.

I'm just not sure what to do and whether or not to be concerned. I'm sure it all stems from frustration and we keep reassuring him and asking him not to hit and scratch himself as it will hurt. But this often just makes him do it to us.

He's usually such a happy, smiley boy.

[coppertop]

Dd (19mths) has also started doing this recently. Hers is out of a mixture of frustration and anger. I haven't found anything that works yet, other than gently moving her hands away from her head and trying to distract her.