Repetitive sounds when overtired — anyone else’s toddler?

[MoreTeaPls]

I posted in Parenting earlier, but thought I’d ask here too as I’m particularly curious whether anyone else’s toddler does the repetitive sounds/chanting thing when very tired.

My toddler (2.5 years old) seems to get more and more hyper the more tired she is, especially at bedtime, and I’m wondering if anyone else’s child does something similar.

Her speech is actually quite advanced for her age, so this isn’t really about limited speech or not having words. When she’s very tired, though, the thing she does most is make repetitive, not-really-meaningful sounds or little chants over and over — things like “jokjokjokjok” or “eeh-roh-eeh-rooh”😅 I’d say this makes up roughly 70% of her vocalising at bedtime when she gets like this.

She does also do some little role-play/self-talk, for example “no no no, don’t don’t…” or “Ah! I’ll do this… do this… no”, but the repetitive sounds are much more dominant than the actual talking.

At the same time she is constantly moving. Her feet and hands are rarely still, she flips over and back again repeatedly, gets up and lies down again, moves around, talks or whispers, etc. This can go on for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour before she finally falls asleep.

I usually try to help her wind down by massaging or patting her back. Sometimes she’ll settle quite quickly with that — maybe 10 minutes on a good night — but often she seems to be fighting sleep despite being exhausted. She’ll keep moving her feet, whispering or chanting, getting back up, talking again, then wanting more massage, and we can go through that cycle several times.

I’ve seen a few posts about toddlers talking to themselves before sleep, but most of the replies seem to be about actual chatting, singing or telling stories. I’m particularly curious about the repetitive sounds/chanting and the physical restlessness.

Does anyone else’s toddler do this when they’re tired? Especially the repetitive vocal sounds rather than normal talking? Did they grow out of it, and did anything help them wind down more easily?

This sounds a bit like stimming.

Have you ever had any thoughts of autism or other neurodiverse conditions? Stereotypical incantation/ repetition is quite common in autistic young children.

your child sounds happy and otherwise settled so no need to panic if this might ring true. All kids are different :)

It could of course be totally neurotypical and just a temporary behaviour, all children exhibit these WTF moments from time to time, particularly if there has been any stress or upset recently. Humans can be totally strange, including bery young ones…

Didn’t you already ask this?

One of mine did this, diagnosed ASD ADHD.

Thanks, that’s helpful. We have recently moved, so there has definitely been some disruption recently, but she’s actually been quite like this for a long time rather than it being completely new.

Neurodiversity has crossed my mind as there’s ASD/ADHD on both sides of the family, although I know 2.5 is very young and I’m not trying to label her from one behaviour. I think that’s partly why I was curious to hear whether other toddlers do the same sort of repetitive vocalising when overtired.

@FlerpOfDoom
Yes 😅 I posted in Parenting earlier but I didn't get that many replies, so I thought I’d try Chat as well to hear a few more experiences.

Appreciate you replying again!

Just bumping this as I’d still really like to hear other people’s experiences.

I’m wondering if the repetitive vocalising might be a kind of stimming. She does it a lot when overtired, but also sometimes during the day when she’s relaxed or excited — lots of little repetitive nonsense sounds like “dekedekedeke” etc.

I’d be really interested to hear from parents of both ND and NT children — did your toddler do this kind of repetitive/nonsense vocalising a lot too, and did it tend to happen in particular situations?

Hi OP, I'm not sure this is helpful but thought I'd share : my 2.5 yo doesn't have good speech, but he will repeat himself before bed. It's more like he's got one little thought going around his head, and he just comes out with the same words on repeat - for comfort. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it's nonsense. And even if it does technically make sense, he doesn't actually mean it, he's still just saying it for the comfort of saying it. Could be something like 'daddy over there daddy over there' etc or last nights was 'big blue mummy tractor big blue mummy tractor'. He doesn't do any repetitive movement, but it wouldn't be a big step from the sound. I don't think my lo has any (other?) signs of neuro divergence: Toddlers do funny things, especially when they're tired - I wouldn't put to much thought into it.

Thank you — and “big blue mummy tractor” is very cute 😄

I’m not hugely worried about this on its own. There are just a couple of other little things I’ve wondered about with DD, and there’s ASD/ADHD in the wider family too, so it made me a bit more curious about whether this kind of repetitive vocalising is something lots of toddlers do.

It’s really useful to hear about a same-age child who does something similar and doesn’t seem to have other obvious signs of neurodivergence.

On the flip side my son is profoundly autistic / ADHD. He was a nightmare to get to bed when the toddler years hit (a dream as a baby). He was constantly moving, stimming and making repetitive sounds. However, he does this in the day too.

He's now on melatonin to help settle him to sleep and it is a huge help. My son also gets hyper manic when he is tired. There is no winding down. He rarely sits still even when knackered.

Thank you, that’s really interesting and there are some similarities there.

Mine does make repetitive sounds during the day too, although with her it seems to happen more when she’s relaxed or really enjoying herself/excited, rather than when she’s stressed. It becomes especially noticeable when she’s very tired though, along with all the constant movement.

One difference is that she was quite a sensitive, fragmented sleeper from babyhood, and when she was younger she’d often have huge cries/meltdowns just before falling asleep or on waking.

It’s really helpful to hear what this looked like for your son at the same age.

My step grandson who is 3 is delayed in terms of speech and mixes his own language with conventional words. The 'own language' is often quite contented - a sort of 'ducka-ducka' sound. It's a bit like an old bloke humming and muttering and chuntering. He finds it hard to settle at night and was very wakeful though melatonin has recently improved things. He is a cheerful and sociable child who loves climbing. He also gets easily frustrated and then bangs his head on the floor and cries inconsolably for long periods.

Thank you — the “ducka-ducka” contented sound actually sounds quite similar to the sort of thing I mean.

My DD’s speech is rather advanced, but she also seems to make these nonsense sounds when she’s contented/relaxed or excited, and then much more when she’s very tired.
Glad that melatonin has helped with his sleep.