Screaming Kids?

Question

I have 2 little girls that think it's absolutely hysterical to scream as loud as they can over and over again. I don't believe in spanking and only one of them is old enough for time out. Time out actually hasn't done me any good anyway. I've even heard that the downstairs neighbors have complained about it. Is there anything that anyone has done about screaming that has been successful? Thanks!

Answer 1

my kids used to do that. what I would do is we would have "scream time" in which the kids AND myself would hoot and hollar (try and make it sound happy so no one thinks your being killed, lol) and then they weren't aloud to scream after that. if your neighbors can hear you try to either do it when you know they're not there... or inform them of your experiment so they don't freak out. another place is at the playground, people never really went to ours so it was nice, where you can have them run and scream.

another one I did was to teach them how to "whisper scream".

you could also try the reward technique since you can't punish the one child. if they start screaming set a timer for say maybe... 15 minutes and try and keep them playing quiet the whole time. if they reach the whole 15 they get a treat! pennies, nickles (to be saved for later shopping), a couple of gummie treats, favored chips, goldfish crackers... anything!

Answer 2

I have 2 screamers as well and they just enjoy hearing how loud they can be! We live in a single family home so the neighbors can't really hear anything. However, it is VERY loud sometimes and what I've had to do is just keep reminding them to use "quiet voices" and that screaming is saved for extremely dangerous situations where they may need to get someone's attention. I also just tell them if they can't lower their voices then they will be separated and I make them play alone for a while.