ARGGHH!! She's hitting everything! What can I do?

[HonorMatopoeia]

Dd is almost 18 months now and (like her mother ) has a heck of a temper! She has taken to really whacking myself and DH and today I walked in to pick her up from the childminders and found her hitting another child - I was mortified. She will hit herself and things such as the floor or the wall as well. It seems to me that she is just getting so frustrated when something doesn't go her way or gets in the way of what she's doing and she's flipping! What on earth can I do to stop this behaviour? Any advice or own experiences would be really welcome, thanks mnetters

shameless bump - am at end of tether!!

sounds to me like normal toddler behaviour. I have a dd 2.6 and she also went througha frustrated stage. It's especially worse if her language is not good. I would be very firm and when she hits hold her hands and say 'NO we dont do that'. make sure you use a lower, sterner voice so that she knows its unacceptable. Then distract her with something else and praise her for good behaviour.
I once saw a progamme where they let a toddler hit and scream on a bean bag to vent the anger appropriately but I think the behaviour does have to be extreme for that.
Also I found teaching my child to use signs greatly reduced her frustration levels when she was pre-verbal. I used a simple makaton signing language, even though she does not have any special needs. You can get a small parents booklet showing you very simple signs from the Makaton website. I just typed this into google and their web page came up. The booklet is inexpensive.
Good luck

That's a great idea BB, thank you. She is a clever little thing but does not have much language so that may very well be the issue here. Will definitely look into signing.