Help with Shrieking 11 Mo!!

My little one discovered his voice at about the same age. It was then that we started with teaching indoor and outdoor voices and the differences between them. Most of the time he was doing the shrieking for attention so we simply did not give him attetion for it. Once he quieted down we would read a book about indoor and outdoor voices. I know he was young for that but he seemed to get the message.

My son also did the clawing and biting thing and too thought it was hysterical whenever I responded to it. To that I would simply put him in time out and explain to him that giving owies is not a funny thing and no acceptable.

He is two years old now I can proudly say that he no longer claws or bites or causes owies.

Good luck

The shrieking is totally developmentally normal and I've actually been told that vocalizing is part of language development. My daughter did the same thing, and sometimes still does, but it did decrease as she reached 1 year. She also laughed when I would react to bites, I think it's because they are still trying to understand cause and effect. Try to give positive feedback. Save "no" for when you really need it and try to redirect behavior, which over the long term is more effective.

Sounds bizarre, but a flick to the nose or ear (relax people, not a beating). Gets their attention. I have used a plant mister, same rationale, but my son liked it. I ignore much of it, and that works really well too. My husband gets upset, and yells "no" for some offenses, and that just encourages him all the more. Good luck.

I personally would pull out the ear plugs and ignore it. Its apart of his development. it will pass as yet another faze he will have in his life. By drawing his attention to it you are making it something that he knows will get attention. If your out in public maybe give a calm shhhh but other than that, i think it will pass (the shrieking i am talking about here)as for the scratching and biting in my opinion thats unacceptable. if he does that you sternly say no then you put him down and walk away. He will learn that he cannot be with you if he does these things. Don't with hold yourself for long, don't go back and get him right away (or at all if he's mobil) though. be sure to be constant, every time he does this you put him down right away and if you have to do it 10 times in 20 minutes well so be it.... but Don't let him hurt the mom! Distract him with something else that he might think is funny... like hurling a stuffed animal into the air , with an animated expression on your face and then a gasp when you catch it or it hits the floor. good luck!
The group for helping people, help people!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/yourmoneyisnogoodhere

There is no need to discourage it. It is a phase and will pass. He just figured out he can make this really cool sound. When the novelty wears off he'll stop.

As for biting, I calmly said, "no biting" and if she repeated, put her down. I'd pick her right back up if she wanted but if she repeated the biting, I repeated the putting down. She got the message very quickly. Your son finds your reaction really interesting, which is why he is laughing. This can prolong the behavior, which is why I went with the no reaction method. No, he won't be a psycho. Totally normal!! :)

One thing I did find helpful was sign language. A lot of kids, it seems, when they cannot communicate in the second year do a lot of high pitched screaming in an effort to talk. DD never did that because usually she could get her needs across to us. She did still enter other phases of new and louder noises, but they also passed since we didn't make a big issue of them.

Discipline is actually teaching, it doesn't mean punishment. You have a while yet before punishment will be an effective way of curbing his undesirable behaviors. There are also non-punitive methods of discipline that are effective. I'd definitely avoid getting his attention by flicking him or misting him. That might be good for animal training. But really you don't want a 6 year old who think it makes sense to flick his classmates to get their attention when they are doing something undesirable to him. They learn by our actions.

A book I thought helpful in understanding my toddler was Karp's "Happiest Toddler on the Block."

Hi K.,
My 2 yr old did the same thing, with glee and gusto! In restaurants we would try distraction techniques. My favorite is make indian noises with his screech. He has his mouth open, so tapping his mouth makes a great noise. And once he starts laughing he can't screech.
Mine's also a biter. We figured out that he bit when he was frustrated about not being understood. As his vocabulary improved the biting and hitting subsided. "Use your words" is the most common phrase in my house right now.
My two yr old also enjoys getting a rise out of his brother. We can see him picking fights, saying things that are wrong because it will anger his brother. He loves it, and laughs like its the greatest game in the world. I think he learned that getting a reaction out of us is fun. So now that he's older he uses different means to accomplish the same ends. But now that he's older time-outs work better.
At one year, he still doesn't get cause and effect, but keep trying. The more consistent you are the quicker his behavior will change.
Good Luck!

He has found the volume of his voice! I personally would not discourage this at all. He is to young and he is learning about the different things he can do with his body. (which includes volume control) It is a phase, my little one went through it as well. and the more you do the no no's at that age I find the more you are accually incouraging it because they all think its funny. I would ignore it and eventually he will be bored by the volume of his voice and move onto something else. Like walking haha. It is completely normal for little boys and girls at that age to yell and scream even when they are playing they are happy. They are just learning something new. Almost like when he found his hands for the first time and realized he could bring them together.
Hope this helps!
C.

Your posting made me laugh out loud because my now five year old used to do those things. Some great parenting advice is on www.thinkkids.org. My little guy used to bite me while I was nursing him and then look up and grin the most beautiful beatific grin. He would just lose the privilege of nursing for the moment. At 11 months switching gears and doing something different is really all that works.

My son Jake also did this shreiking, it was awful!!! The clawing too. For that I would put him down and say no scratching and walk away...it only took a few times of losing my attention to stop that. As far as the shreiking I have no answer, but he grew out of it. Good luck!

Hi K.,

My son went through that also. He is now 17 months, and isn't perfect - but here are the tricks that worked for us.

When he screamed, we'd try and divert him - focus his voice on something else, like "Can you say 'baby?'" or "What does the cow say?" or singing (he would listen more so than sing).

As for the hitting and biting - Kyle too found my responses hilarious. I had to stop giving him that response, and started teaching him to touch "gentle" or "nice" and would say these words with exaggerated emphasis. Now he pets us and says "niii-iiice" and we praise him. He still hits and bites on occassion, but those techniques helped a little.

Good luck.

K.

Hi Kate. Start immediately setting boundaries, but in a way that is in no way intimidating to your little guy. The easiest way to do that is through your facial and hand gestures, and your vocal tone. Keep your response to his 'negative' behavior (albeit 'cute' and funny) brief. You must respond immediately. I like the phrase 'Uh UH' (use word 'NO!' for really important situations like safety issues) If its' the shrieking you specifically want to fade out, then give him "the look" a deeper toned 'Uh Uh' paired with a gestural cue of 'stop', being sure to get in his personal space. Come down to his level. That is important. Then, stand up to turn your attention away from him while he shrieks. Turning your back to him, continue to do something else. If necessary, repeat the sequence again. When he takes a breath and to ease up on the s shrieking, swoop him up and praise him...but do NOT over indulge him in praise, otherwise he'll shriek to get the praise. Just swoop him up and calmly say 'thank you. No loud voice' and peck him on the cheek. Then move on! I KNOW it sounds like you're training a puppy, BUT it works! You must establish that you are the Alpha dog in the pack early on...Have fun parenting Kate. Be Peace, N.

Hi K.,

Jake sounds like a very typical 11 m.o. :) My daughter is 17 months old, and went thru this same thing. You are absolutley correct that he is discovering his voice and the noises he can make! With my daughter it was a phase that has passed. This may sound cuckoo, but when she would do it I would jokingly say outloud, "I love that noise" because it was my way of not getting annoyed with her when she was making the most annoying noise. I don't know if that makes sense, but it worked for me.
A lot of what kids are doing at that age is testing out the world, testing your reactions and they love when they get one. When he is a little older and can understand a little more that it hurts when he bites or claws, you can start to tell him in a firm, but not angry voice that it hurts you and if he continues, you can simply put him down.
Best of luck!

I'm not much help because we're dealing with this too so I clicked to see other's responses and it doesn't look like others have a lot to say yet.

Here's what we're trying, I don't know if any of it will help but it's what we're going with right now:

1. Hoping it's a phase we can just live through
2. Doing lots of sign language. If anything, it seems to make her stop for a second and look at us. Try checking Signing Time videos out from the Minuteman Library system. There are a lot of them but they're great, very repetitious and you can watch the ones that most apply first (shrieking at the dinner table made us watch all the food ones first, then we figured out which ones we needed next and found those videos next).
3. We checked out (actually Netflixed) The Happiest Toddler on the Block DVD and though it doesn't perfectly apply, it gives me ideas to avoid future tantrums (my dd's, not mine, lol); for some reason, after viewing it and understanding the concepts, I am more confident, even though she hasn't shrieked since watching it (last night).

It doesn't help 100% but may give you ideas? I await patiently for others' responses.