JAWM: When do screamers stop screaming????

[Cecropia]

My 2 year old is a screamer.  He screams when he's mad, when he's happy, when we're eating together as a family, you name it.  It's been going on for a long time.  Perhaps my ears are getting more sensitive or he's pumping up the pitch/volume/duration as he gets older.  It is becoming physically painful for my ears, even when I am all the way across the house.  These days, I wear heavy ear protection when he starts one of his screamathons.  My other kids were not screamers.  It's not a behavior I feel I can really control/discourage.  I am praying that he will grow out of this soon!

[Mergath]

Based on our neighbor's children, not by five. ?

[Cecropia]

11 minutes ago, Mergath said:

Based on our neighbor's children, not by five. ?

Ugh, that's not the answer I wanted!  If he keeps this up for the next three years, I feel certain that I will experience early hearing loss (if it hasn't started already).  Plus it just wears me down and some days I end up a really cranky mom/wife to everyone.  It's probably affecting my mental health...!

[HomeAgain]

Never dealt with screaming to that degree, but my default for unwanted behavior was to immediately remove the child from the activity while repeating/reinforcing the preferred behavior.  Sometimes during angry tantrums it took some time of just removal before reinforcing after they're calm, but usually the change of scenery was enough to at least break the activity for a moment or so. 
Unfortunately, since I was the one removing/dealing with the child while they were removed, it didn't get better immediately for *me*, but it was nicer for everyone else and eventually it got better for all of us as they were able to control themselves more.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Cecropia said:

My 2 year old is a screamer.  He screams when he's mad, when he's happy, when we're eating together as a family, you name it.  It's been going on for a long time.  Perhaps my ears are getting more sensitive or he's pumping up the pitch/volume/duration as he gets older.  It is becoming physically painful for my ears, even when I am all the way across the house.  These days, I wear heavy ear protection when he starts one of his screamathons.  My other kids were not screamers.  It's not a behavior I feel I can really control/discourage.  I am praying that he will grow out of this soon!

I wonder why you think this, though. I knew a mom of seven who was extremely good at cultivating quietness in her children. If they got loud, she got quieter. She would whisper to them. She would give them instructions or information very quietly, with eye contact at their level. That was the quietest family I have ever known, but I really believe the mom cultivated it. I would probably focus more on curbing the happy and eating screaming because combating screaming related to anger is a different strategy. So, for example, if Junior said, “AAAAAAAHHHH, SPAGHETTI,!! I LOOOOOOVE IT,!!”, I would intercept/model a very quiet/whispery, “Spaghetti is yummy! I love it, too.” I would probably do hand signals too, like the palms-down, tamping motion while I whispered. (I would also be sure the other kids are not whipping up a frenzy of noise as well.) I have no idea if this would work, but that’s what I would try! 

I would also scrupulously avoid anything on my part that rewarded or reinforced the screaming. I would model and try to get him to copy the whisper/quiet request before he got something he wanted.