toddler smacks own head!

[meganlisbeth]

hi all -- my DS is 21 months old (as of tomorrow).
when he is frustrated, he smacks himself in the head. i find this highly disturbing. i try to stop him and tell him to be gentle with himself, but i'm not sure if my point is getting across.
it seems to happen when he is trying to communicate something to me or my DH and we're just not getting it. he has about 35 words and some of the key signs, but i know he's simply dying to tell us so much more.
have any of you experienced this? what did you do?
thanks so much
megan

[rightkindofme]

My daughter does that sometimes, along with pulling her hair hard enough to make her say "owwwww!!!" It's... interesting to watch. I mostly don't intervene. Her relationship with her body is hers to navigate. I talk to her about how that looks like it isn't fun, but if she wants to do it I don't know that trying to prevent it would work. My daughter is incredibly, unusually verbal. She is 20 months and she knows a few thousand words and puts together fairly complex 4-5-6 word sentences and she gets verb tense and everything. I don't think it is just a communication issue. She can communicate. She is really awesome at saying, "Shanna frustrated! Shanna wants (fill in the blank)" and then she still whacks herself. So... yeah. I treat it like a weird kid thing to ignore.

[gbailey]

Originally Posted by rightkindofme

My daughter does that sometimes, along with pulling her hair hard enough to make her say "owwwww!!!" It's... interesting to watch. I mostly don't intervene. Her relationship with her body is hers to navigate. I talk to her about how that looks like it isn't fun, but if she wants to do it I don't know that trying to prevent it would work. My daughter is incredibly, unusually verbal. She is 20 months and she knows a few thousand words and puts together fairly complex 4-5-6 word sentences and she gets verb tense and everything. I don't think it is just a communication issue. She can communicate. She is really awesome at saying, "Shanna frustrated! Shanna wants (fill in the blank)" and then she still whacks herself. So... yeah. I treat it like a weird kid thing to ignore.

It's taken me a while to get to this point but I agree with you. The more I told DD to not hit herself or yank her hair the more I did it. I figure it's herbody if she wants to pull and poke more power to her. LOL

I'm impressed by your daughters unusual verbal ability! Nice! Wow.

[rightkindofme]

Originally Posted by gbailey

It's taken me a while to get to this point but I agree with you. The more I told DD to not hit herself or yank her hair the more I did it. I figure it's herbody if she wants to pull and poke more power to her. LOL

I'm impressed by your daughters unusual verbal ability! Nice! Wow.

Apparently my husband was speaking in sentences at eight months. She sure didn't get this much precocity from me. ha.

[jacobsmommy]

My DS did this for a short time too. I think I would say "ouch" or honey don't do that or even ignore and then distract him. It turned out to be just a little phase. My niece did it too when she was this age.

[meganlisbeth]

Thanks everyone. It's helpful to hear that this is pretty common.