My 16 Month Old Communicates by Yelling!!!!!!!!!!

My son does this too. It's a high pitched shriek too when he's frustrated and wants to say something but we aren't listening or understanding. It's hard in public b/c it's ear piercing. I attribute it to a lack of verbal skills. He gets so frustrated b/c he can't say what needs to be said. The only thing that's worked for me is to try to help him verbalize what he wants by saying I hear you you want x or i hear you, you're frustrated because... , etc. Sometimes, though, I can't identify the problem quickly-usually in oublic! : )

Good luck.
R.

Have his hearing checked as soon as possible. Also, you may find that if your household is as busy as most, he may feel he has to yell to be heard. Sometimes the youngest child is louder than the others because the older kids and adults are always talking and his needs aren't being met until he yells or cries. He's not being mistreated, just over-looked now that he's beginning to communicate. He may need an opportunity to put in his 2-cents worth now that he is demanding it, LOL!

http://www.missbrenda.com

Hi T.,
Just wondering if you have talked to your pediatrician about this behavior. If a medical reason is not found you might want to contact your local ECI program and have them do a free evaluation in your home to see if they can help with this. You can call the Infant and Toddler Intervention Program who serves the Denton area at ###-###-####. You will need to listen to the prompts to know which number you will select to talk to someone about a referral. Let us know how things work for you. Sincerely, J.
P.S. I participated in early voting - less stress and crowds. Thanks for the reminder!

Welcome to boy land!
However, he should be able to learn to tone it down over the next couple months. You might make a game out of whispering. We've done it for a while with my 19 month old. At meal times we'll play a game saying the same word (usually one of the kids' names) in a regular voice, loud voice and whisper voice.
The other mom had a point about ruling out a medical issue. I wonder if it would be too much trouble to have his hearing tested.

Oh my goodness I think you wrote this post about my son. I don't have any advice but just wanted to let you know you're not alone, When I go to the store with my husband and we go off in different directions he never has a hard time locating us. I'm not really sure how to handle it as my daughter has always been on the quite side. Boys are definitely wonderfully different! Good advice from the other posters, I'm going to give the suggestions a try as well.

I agree that signing is a great way to teach preverbal children to communicate. Also, when he yells, do not respond to him/do not give him what he wants. Tell him, "Use your inside voice." Then demonstrate for him, "Mommy, I want that ball." When you see that he is making an attempt at using a more acceptable tone/volume, immediately reward the behavior by giving him what he wants or giving him praise. But do not respond when he is loud.