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My toddler is going through a shrieking phase: When she spots a friend; when she doesn?t want to put on her shoes; when she?s simply delighting in the sound of her own voice. I know she?s just expressing herself, and if I don?t react she tends to tone it down, but it?s hard to stay calm when we?re in public and it feels like all eyes are on us.
At 18 months, a child usually knows more than 50 words, says Elaine Weitzman, a speech-language pathologist. It only makes sense that in the absence of language, toddlers use another outlet to express how they feel. ?Shrieking gives toddlers a way of communicating until a more sophisticated system kicks in,? she says. Communication by shrieking isn?t well-received by everyone. Some people will be sympathetic to the mom with the screaming child in the grocery store, says Andrea Ramsay Speers, a parent educator in Oakville, Ont., but others feel more inconvenienced. ?You want to be conscious of those around you, but balance that with your toddler?s need to express herself.?
The key to staying calm when your toddler?s vocal volume is on overdrive is to identify what kind of shrieker you have on your hands, and to have a few responses ready.

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The happy shrieker

If her ...