2.5 year old is so difficult

[AA20192022]

Hi all,just looking for advice ir similar experience. My son is 2.5 years old and he is just so difficult. He screams at everything. When we ask him to wait he will have a full blown tantrum. His hitting stopped however in the last few weeks he has started again. Yesterday his nursery told us that within 15 mis he pushed 5 kids which led to them getting hurt. He cries most of the day and when he dors not get his way he throws massive tantrums. I can’t take him anywhere because I know he will just cry and scream. Its gotten to the point where I have stopped going to visit family and friends because he creates such a scene with his crying and screaming at everything that it gets embarrassing. I am just so helpless when it comes to his behaviour. He is still not talk, he said some
2-3 words sentences but has quite limited speech, he can say about 25 words in total and understands everything we say. Health visitor does not have concerns about his general development and sais he needs time as he is also bilingual. I understand he can be frustrated due to limited soeech however the tantrums and the constant crying is for things he does understand and can say most of the time. I have a 6 year old daughter and by yhe time she was 2.5 she really started ti wettle and became manageable. Anyone else in a similar situation ot have a child that was difficult but got easier with age. I wake up in the morning dredding the day ahead…

Boy child, I remember between 2-3.5/4 being bloody awful and hard work!!!!! Definitely remember thinking this should have got easier by now! He's 7 now, still hard work but also delightful most of the time

Im in a very similar situation with my DS also, he is 2. I feel you and hope someone can suggest something that helps!!!

Unfortunately I don't have any solutions. But just wanted to say that my son was incredibly hard work at this age. He's 19 years now and an amazing young man. He did grow out of it eventually! I shudder at the memory of those early years though!

I have a son who’s almost 2.5 and his behaviour got quite difficult after his younger sibling was born in February. I read a book called ‘oh crap, I have a toddler!’ ( it’s by the lady who wrote the oh crap potty training book if you’ve heard of it) - read it during contact naps with baby when eldest was at nursery, probably would never have found the time before, and actually found it really helpful. It’s hard to summarise here because it’s not really about quick fixes and there were quite a lot of different elements, but things like making sure we had ‘connection time’ as regularly as possible- and she’s quite specific on what counts as connection time - it’s things like reading with them, colouring, sitting on the mat and playing with toys and not being at all in ‘parent mode’ where you’re telling the what to do or trying to teach them. Making sure they get opportunities to for lots of physical play, creative play, etc.There's also some techniques for coping with transitions, which was something my son was really struggling with.
It seems you are thinking his lack of speech might have a lot to do with his behaviour and I would think you are right. If he understands a lot but can’t say much he is probably getting really frustrated. Our son is also bilingual and after an initial slow start with speaking, he has improved a lot since turning 2 and it’s so much easier as he can say more and more and we at least almost always know the reason he’s upset/screaming or whatever now. Can you revisit the issue and try to get some intervention? I follow a few accounts on Instagram run by child speech therapists such as raising little talkers, which have quite a lot of useful tips you can use with them yourself.

I hope things improve- it can be so so stressful

My 21 month old sounds similar, she screams so much! I think part of it is communication like you say, dd is also bilingual and has a few phrases and lots of single words but obviously can’t explain much.
I read a book called theirs no such thing as naughty which was helpful but to be honest she is still a handful and a totally different character to my three and a half year old who never had huge meltdowns.

Nope girls can be like this too

My ds is 3 now and much easier going than he was at 2, if that's any consolation. When his speech improved, that helped massively. I wonder if teaching your son any simple signs might help? Also is your son getting enough sleep as that can have a massive impact on behaviour/mood?