[~Casey~]

This seems to be Grace's new fave thing to do. Little stinkerpie! I have been completely ignoring her when she does that. Is that the best approach? I kinda felt like if I reacted to it she is getting attention and I don't want to reinforce bad behavior. So I have been really praising her when she is being nice, and just ignoring the OBNOXIOUS screaming. It is especially annoying because she will calmly look you square in the eyes and give you a blood curdling scream.

[Isabellamom]

My two girls both went through a stage of screaming. It was followed by the beginning of their verbal abilities, so I don't know if maybe they were connected? Like, the screaming was the trigger or something . When they use to scream to show me they wanted something I would wait until they pointed or showed me, then it went into saying "dat dat" or "eto eto" (turned into spanish for "that") from there while pointing at what they wanted.

So, I would say to try and encourage her to communicate beyond the screaming but to maybe see the screaming as communication, too. If that makes sense

[BensMom]

Ben did exactly the same thing! He had a screaming episode just before he started consistently saying mom, dad, dog, and hi/hey. (He's an early talker because his motor skills were delayed a bit.) Since he's started crawling, he only says dad now and he barks at the dogs! Seriously... it's definitely directed at them and meant to be a bark, but it sounds more like a scream. We tell him no and tap him on the mouth so he'll associate the no with the appropriate body part, but that's about it.

That's what we do to everything at this point. We consistently say no (not "stop" or "don't" ... it's always "no") and we tap the body part that's doing whatever we're referring to so he'll understand why we're telling him no. *Soooooometimes* we can even say no from across the room and get the appropriate response. We *usually* get a giggle and he'll go back to doing whatever it was. Little booger! He KNOWS what he's doing!

[~Casey~]

I hadn't thought of that. I'll bet you're right about her trying to communicate. I can always tell she wants something. I just try to not let the screaming be the means to an end for her. KWIM? I like you're idea. She has been more focused on her motor skills instead of verbal until now, so I suppose she's going to be really learning the verbal thing now. Thanks for the advice!

[Kelly]

Davey's been screaming too, but only in the car when he wants out. I high pitch SCREAM like you girls are talking about. I've been ignoring it because there's nothing I can do for him in the car.