Hi there,
I have two DS. Eldest is 3 and the youngest is 18 months.
Over the past month or so my youngest has started screaming. Literally high pitched screaming. He seems to do it predominantly to get across whatever it is he is trying to say. It’s not even necessarily when he’s upset - he screams almost every few minutes over something. Literally anything. When he sees something he’d like. When he is hungry. When he wants a ball. When he wants a cuddle. When he wants to stroke a dog. The list is endless. Something has taught him that screaming gets results and I’m stuck here pulling my hair out as I can’t seem to change this behaviour. Just to be clear - I am used to noise, we have two children and both my husband and I come from large families. So noise is normal. But this screaming is on another level. It’s so high pitched it makes your ear drum quiver due to the pitch. You can quite clearly hear him from anywhere in the local area. I dread taking him to public places because once the noise starts - rooms clear out.
Can anyone offer advice on how to try and positively encourage a different form of communication from an 18 month old? I’m hoping once his speech develops it will stop but I can’t tell if this is something more serious that’s underlying. Do we really need to go to a healthcare professional? Should we work on ignoring it? We just don’t know what to do anymore. I wouldn’t be writing this if it wasn’t becoming an increasingly difficult issue to manage.
Thank you!