Eh Eh Eh

[pumpkin]

When our 16 mo old wants something she just whines over and over. Its mostly just things she sees that she wants to hold. Not always safe. We just moved and there is stuff everywhere because we are unpacking and installing things. Redirecting hardly works. She is obsessive once she picks an object.

I think I am going to lose my mind.

[healthy momma]

I hear Eh, Eh, Eh so much at that age I thought I was going to go nuts. Don't worry it will eventually give way to something a bit more tolerable!

[j_p_i]

My 13.5 mo DD does this. I try to give her the words to use ("more, please", etc). While I tolerate it pretty well, it drives my DH nuts! It has helped us to utilize different signs for things, as well as trying to give her the words she is looking for.

[Everrgreen]

Yeah, my DS does this too, he's 18 months today and he still does it for everything. His sounds seem to be getting more varied though, so I'm hoping some real words will start to replace the 'eh eh eh' soon. It doesn't annoy me most of the time, I'm so used to it I guess, and I just respond with what I know he really wants 'are you asking to have an apple?' There are times though when I feel like my brain might explode if I hear one more 'eh?'

[physmom]

DD did that too around that age, IT DROVE ME NUTS!!

For us, she was doing it while she was signing exactly what she wanted so it made me extra crazy. Finally, I realized she was doing it to say something (at the time she wasn't super verbal) and so even though she couldn't express her thoughts verbally she felt like she still needed to make some sort of noise.

What I did was started to signing to her occasionally without saying anything. Almost immediately it stopped! Maybe you could do something similar by showing her non-verbal communication without speaking.

[AFWife]

I'm glad to find this thread...and even more glad to know that we aren't the only ones about to go insane!

He usually does it for things he knows he can't have. I keep giving him words for things he CAN have, "please water" or "fork" or whatever.

Oh the joys of a non verbal toddler!

[MusicianDad]

Originally Posted by healthy momma

I hear Eh, Eh, Eh so much at that age I thought I was going to go nuts. Don't worry it will eventually give way to something a bit more tolerable!

Like "mine, mine, mine, MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!"

[allical1284]

Exactly the same with my (almost) 15 month old! Eh,eh,eh for everything!!! It doesn't drive me nearly as batty as when my MIL tells DD that she won't acknowledge her requests until she learns how to ask properly

[T-man's Mama]

Originally Posted by physmom

What I did was started to signing to her occasionally without saying anything. Almost immediately it stopped! Maybe you could do something similar by showing her non-verbal communication without speaking.

Great idea! I will try this with my 16-mo old.

[Beauchamp]

We are soooooooo in the Eh Eh EEEEEEeeeeeeehhhh phase! It drives me nuts sometimes, mostly because I can't always figure out what she wants.

Signing sounds great, but complicated. I'd like to learn more, but don't know if I can afford to get bogged down in another thing. Is it that good?

[healthy momma]

Originally Posted by Beauchamp

Signing sounds great, but complicated. I'd like to learn more, but don't know if I can afford to get bogged down in another thing. Is it that good?

No need to get bogged down! Pick one thing she likes and you talk about a lot (cat, dog, lights, fan, food, apple????), learn the sign (or make up your own!), start making the sign when you say the word, keep doing it (again, and again, and again) and see what happens. If it works for the two of you add another word. If it still works try another. If not, drop it. Pretty simple!

[swd12422]

Yes, it's THAT good!!

DS didn't do anything nearly as nice-sounding as "eh eh eh...." He'd just shriek bloody murder if he couldn't reach something. It only took a few days of constantly thinking he was bleeding to death or about to impale himself before I realized that a) he wanted something and b) it wasn't going to stop anytime soon.

So I quickly taught him the sign for "help." He'd never signed much before that. I'd tried to teach him "eat" and "drink" and "please" and a few other things, but it never caught on. Once he was toddling around and REALLY wanted to explore, though, he got it quickly. He'd shriek, I'd kneel down and say, "No screaming. Say, 'Mommy, help.'" And I'd sign "help." It didn't take long for him to shriek, see the look on my face, and then sign help, and in a few weeks the shrieking had stopped altogether.

I never did teach him other words, like cup or whatever for the things he was wanting to get at (b/c I'm lazy). But once he had my attention by saying "Mommy" and signing "help," he could point at whatever he wanted me to get for him, and I could give it to him or tell him why he couldn't have it and give him something else instead. Maybe I'm a bad mommy for not caring to teach him the words, but I just needed the shrieking to STOP. And it did!

[melon]

I just posted about my whiny 15 mo. "Eh" is his favorite word/sound.
We use a few signs: more, potty, milk (morphed into drink upon weaning), but he still whines and Ehs waaaay too much.

[mambera]

I actually don't get the signing thing either. If they're capable of making a hand sign aren't they capable of making a word??

[Limabean1975]

Originally Posted by mambera

I actually don't get the signing thing either. If they're capable of making a hand sign aren't they capable of making a word??

Most can sign better and sooner than speaking words.

[physmom]

Originally Posted by Limabean1975

Most can sign better and sooner than speaking words.

totally agree here. DD understands A LOT but just can't get her mouth to make all the sounds (and many times I just don't understand what she's saying). However, she's been signing complicated stuff for awhile now and probably could do a lot more but she's already maxed my signing vocab!

At one point she could sign 2-3 times more words than she could actually say. Now her speech is catching up but she still can't express as complicated ideas as she can sign because she can sign in sentences but can't speak in them yet.

I also wanted to reiterate what PP said. You don't have to go all gun-ho for signing. You can just introduce a few words and still get a lot of the advantages!

ETA There are actually some good studies out there that show that at 18 months kids that were taught ASL from day one (presumably from deaf parents, I'm not referring to baby signing here) on average signed 50-120 words at 18 months whereas I believe the average for kids that speak is somewhere between 20-50? So that's quite a few more words there!!