Help me stop the yelling! (x-post)

[Wild Lupine]

My son's yelling, that is. 

My just turned 3 y.o. son often speaks/yells at a very loud volume. Loud enough that it is extremely difficult to be in the same room with him at times; it even bugs my 4 y.o. and has been pointed out to us (politely) in public as being inappropriately loud.  He is not yelling because he's angry, he's playing and happy when he does it.  

He can speak more quietly when I ask him to, but he generally goes right back to the loudness in a few seconds. 

I'm x-posting this in SN because I think it's rooted in a sensory issue. DS has extremely good hearing and is becoming increasingly bothered by loud sounds. He has sound reducing headphones and when he wears them he talks at a normal volume. But without them, it's like he's at a rock concert, trying to shout over the noise, except there's no other noise. He doesn't always want to wear the headphones and it's becoming a power battle.

I mentioned it to his ENT, who confirmed he has very good hearing, but then brushed me off with a 'some kids his age just yell, he'll outgrow it.'

This is not normal and I really need to find a solution. It is sooo hard being around someone yelling all the time and even though I KNOW he's not trying to annoy me, it is very hard to stay patient and not get frustrated with him.

[Emmeline II]

You could try an evaluation by an audiologist. I would also do an eval with an OT. An OT can help with his sensory issues, but an audiologist can diagnose issues more specific than good hearing/deficient hearing.

My son had a similar issue at that age and was recently diagnosed with a receptive language disorder. He has finally respond to my "turning" down the imaginary volume control--perhaps since we often lose the remote to the stereo and have him adjust the volume dial for us.

[UptownZoo]

Ah, yes, the yelling. My youngest is 9, and he still hasn't learned to lower his voice! For him, it's definitely a sensory issue. His hearing is perfect. He's terrified of loud noises unless he's in control of them, which means that he yells at all of us if we don't tiptoe up and down the stairs, but he stomps stomps stomps all the way up or down.

I wish I could identify a solution, but we haven't one yet. Like the previous poster said, OT is the best treatment, but far from foolproof. We have a hand gesture that we use to indicate that he's speaking too loudly and needs to lower his voice and he's pretty responsive to that after years of practice.

[Wild Lupine]

Thanks, Uptown and Emmeline. He has a consultation with a new OT provider next week and I'll bring it up as something she might be able to work with him on. Today is his WCV with his primary care doc and I'll see about a referral to an audiologist. 

The yelling is so out of synch with his general personality. He's a mellow, sweet, calm kid, except for this.

[RiverTam]

We used the Incredible 5 point scale to try to work on this with Oldest Son. He's really loud. We hung the chart on the refrigerator and then practiced various volumes. We remind Oldest Son constantly, but it is lessening with time. He forgets when he is excited, but a quick "Get your voice to Level 3, please" gets a quick response from him.

Here's a sample chart: http://www.boardmakershare.com/Activity/410936/voice-volume-scale-5-levels-1-5

We added another column to our chart which listed places each level might be used. (Level 2 = churches, funerals, libraries, hospitals, and around sleeping babies)