2 Years Old Screaming When Other Kids Scream

Its fine.
He screams too, because is it tweaking him. Irking him.
Young children/babies... also scream to shut-out, external stimuli. Its a reflex and at this age, it is involuntary.
And it will be worse if/when the child is tired/over-tired...

My daughter, was real sensitive to loud noises/certain pitches, when younger, and still sort of is sometimes.
We simply taught her... how to say when something is bothering her and that she CAN tell us. And we will try to help.

all the best,
Susan

Normal. Little kids are sensitive and empathetic when strong feelings are being expressed (especially by other little kids), and they don't always know what to do with the strong feelings, so they often scream or cry, too.

Plus, some kids are startled, scared, or just plain overstimulated by sudden or loud sound of any kind. I have a friend with an autistic son who is so bothered by almost any loud noise that he'll bolt, blindly running and screaming. She got him a pair of earmuffs to block sound, and he does much better. Not all kids are that reactive, thank goodness.

It's not a good idea to try to talk your son out of his emotions, which are appropriate and normal for his age. We don't want to teach our kids to deny their authentic feelings or repress their empathy, because they'll need to be in touch with those for many future situations. Help your son experience his feelings when they arise by hugging him and just observing the feeling; "Oh, that got you feeling sad / scared, huh? That's okay. Let's go do __________ as soon as you're ready, all right?"

I cannot take Piercing screams. They give me migraines. I used to tell our daughter and her friends, unless something is bleeding or has fallen off of her body, to please not scream..

Oh dear God, you just described my day yesterday! My DS is 2, and we were around 2 different tempermental kids at 2 different times. Each time, when the other kids started crying, so did he. He's normally so calm!
Very weird. But I think it's normal.

I recall my son doing it when he was younger but he had sensory issues and I think the sound of the other children crying hurt his ears.

Hi Mimi, for some kids it is normal, I have experienced that in my daycare. Children somtimes feed off of another childs emotions/behavior. What I do is try and quiet the copy cat, and reward that child for not crying/screaming, This way the other child/children see the child getting a reward, so they learn not to cry and scream for the sake of crying and screaming.J.