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jimssmom

Screaming

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My 3 yr old son whos awaiting dx has taken to screaming when things go wrong.

For e.g, if a toy breaks he screams, if he drops something, he'll scream, if i pick him up from school and leave the car at home, he'll scream. And i mean, it's REALLY loud screaming & shouting. He'll even start screaming if an actor on TV is "in trouble" and screaming etc.

Anyone experience this?

When my son screams at home, i've gone to him and said "whats the matter?" but continues to scream. I ignore him, he'll scream some more.

Any ideas?

 

Jimssmom

 

 

 

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screaming just as a noise or screaming in pain/anger or screaming as in crying?

 

My DS screams when angry or excited or any emotion really. He says that noise just comes out because he doesn't know what else to do!

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How old is your person? does he have verbal communication abilitys? screaming could be his way of expressing himself particularly if he is anxious and scared .

Edited by sesley

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My son is 3. He has verbal skills but only a little. He usually does it when he's angry/frustrated. as u say perhaps he doesn't know how to express himself in any other way.

It's comforting to know others are experiencing it too. How do u usually handle it?

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have you been to any NAS help conferences yet in your area, there is also help 2 now, this gives you a wealth of ideas to help your child express thier feelings and emotions, we found for us visual cards helped us a lot, and ideas to support him where very good.

 

What about wearing ear plugs to dampen down the noise for periods he is really screaming, and then play some relaxing music for your son, or do some exercises for him to help him get rid of his frustration, yoga bugs is great, look into the NAS help programmes Im sure they will help you further.

 

There maybe a Autism advisory service in your area too that can also come up with further ideas.

 

JsMumxxx

 

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We cope in a variety of ways - we try to tell him when he has made the noise to help him regocnise that he is doing it, and hopefully, one day, help him stop! He has his first appointment at CAMHS today too, which I'm hoping might come up with some strategies..... We also use time out in his room very sucessfully.

 

But 3 is still very young - even NT 3 year olds can scream quite happily for no real reason (why don't kids get sore throats? my DS could scream non-stop for hours without any seeming discomfort!). Mostly at that age we coped by trying to comfort him quickly to stop the screaming and if that didn't work, by putting him somewhere quiet where he didn't disturb anyone else too much. I spent many hours sitting outside his bedroom door crying as I listened to him scream :tearful: Once the emotion burned out a bit, he could be comforted quiet again.

 

Not sure that is much help really? Basically, see if you can work out what is causing the screaming and try to head it off at the pass as often as possible. We learned to stay away from crowded places, bass noises etc which always freak DS out.

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I agree that any NAS seminars you can get on can help you learn more about autism.

They run Help 1 and 2 programmes, and also other more specific ones targetting certain areas or behaviours.

The screaming may well be down to not being able to 'say' what the problem is.

It could be in relation to many things eg. with transitions, not being able to make connections between information, sensory issues or overload, being upset or frightened.

If he has some verbal skills, then with SALT input he should improve and the screaming should begin to reduce.

And as he develops you will begin to understand more about how he ticks.

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You could try to talk through what you may think the problem is.

Eg if he drops something and starts screaming you can say "oh dear, you dropped it", "pick it up". etc

Try to keep language very simple with as few words as possible.

If it is with transitions, then sometimes letting them finish what they are doing before you move them onto the next thing. Give them verbal and visual warnings.

Try to distract him with something else.

Some things you may only discover with hindsight. For example my son used to get very upset with transitions; if I talked to him when he was concentrating on a puzzle or playing with lego etc. I now know that it was because I was breaking up his concentration by talking to him. I later found I got a much better reaction when I joined in alongside eg. if he was building a lego model and I said "great model" he was okay - but if I asked "what have you made" he would get very upset because I was asking him to stop concentrating on the model and answer my question that was directed at him. So by commenting on what he has done eg. great model, big model, blue model etc that was much better.

Many children can have difficulties with working memory, sequencing etc. Again if you break their concentration they may find they have to go back to the beginning and start again. We (NTs in general), may find it much easier to multi task and be doing something, talking about something else, and thing about yet something else. Those on the spectrum tend to put all their focus and attention into one thing at a time. This can frequently cause them to appear deaf for example because they are so focused on what they are doing or thinking that they do not pick up that something is talking to them.

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Thanks to all that have replied to this post.

I will look at the NAS seminars as they sound like a great idea.

My son tends to do this screaming when he thinks we're making him do something he doesn't want to do - but as you rightly pointed out NT's will do this too.

I guess it gets frustrating at he doesn't understand what we are saying, which those visual cards will come in handy.

Great ideas, thanks x

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Hi, my ds now 6 used to scream all the time when he was 3 and his verbal communication was very limited( so much so I had to call on the neighbors to say, he is fine, I am with him, but if you are concerned feel free to knock on the door to check he is ok!)I found that pretty much it was just something he had to grow out of, pecs helped with the "i dont know what is happening" screams but other things like a story does not end in the way he planned screams they were just something we had to ride out. On a positive note as ds has become more verbal the screaming has all but stopped now he shouts about what he is upset about :o but at least you can understand the problem and try to make him undersatnd! Good luck it is so very tough when your child is upset or screaming and you cant make it better!

It will get better.

 

I do recomend speaking to the neighbours, I was always worried that they might think ds was either being harmed or neglected when he screamed during the evening, which added to the worry of the screaming! my neighbours were all fantastic and I felt more confident when the screaming was about a chocolate biscuit I had said no to, I was able not to give in safe in the knowlege the neighbours would be comfortable to knock on the door if they heard him screaming for long periods or were worried by his noise.

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