Preschooler Yelling Gibberish All.Day.Long

[revolting]

We live in a small apartment. No yard. Enough crime activity that I'm not comfortable letting my kids outside unsupervised. I make a point of making sure they get outside for at least two hours a day, though, often we are outside three or four hours. We have a trampoline and ride-on toys for our small apartment. A lot of neighbors have recently emigrated and speak a great diversity of languages.

My almost five year old is not in preschool. She has a younger sibling who is almost two and really starting to speak well. She's working on dropping her nap. She's going through a bit of a rough patch: big increase in tantrums, whining, fighting with her brother, etc... What bugs me the most, though, is the yelling gibberish all.day.long. My head hurts from the constant yelling. She won't stop, no matter how much time she has outside, no matter how much I try to engage her. I'm sure it drives the neighbors nuts. It drives me nuts. The only time she stops is when I tell her I'm too mad to be around her and if she wants me to do something for her, I need to have some quiet to calm down, but as soon as she gets what she wants, she goes right back to yelling gibberish.

Worst of all, my youngest loves to copy her, and so the sound is just that much more intense.

Why is she doing this? Is this normal?

[Mama2ChicknLil]

It can be, especially if she seems to be going through a bit of a developmental shift right now. Are there any major changes going on in her life? Is she doing it at school too? Is she more tired/sleeping more? I know this is REALLY hard to do, but have you considered joining in on the gibberish? If it's attention seeking behavior (normal) that might help, making it into a game.

Are there any times you notice she WONT talk/yell gibberish? Don't worry about the neighbors and keep ibuprofen at hand :)

Odds are she will lose interest in the this sooner than later...and find something else equally as annoying to do!!!

good luck

[nextcommercial]

OMgosh.. I'd lose my mind.  I feel for you.  I've had students/kids who do this sometimes for a while, but they don't yell it.. they just say silly words over and over.  (I'm pretty sure it's to annoy me.)  It always ends before I completely snap.  

Not that trading one annoying thing for another annoying thing is always a good idea, but she's at the age for Knock Knock jokes.  Can you turn her on to knock knock jokes?  Or singing?  (shudders at the thought of her screaming her songs)

[Spirit Dancer]

Honestly I have found that my 5 yr is old enough to be able to understand a bit about my own obvious feelings. You need a lot of patinece for 5yrs olds as they are still very young but on the flip side if my son was doing a certain thing that was about to send me over the edge I would put a stop to it. I have found as a mother that I am doing no one in the family a favour if I act as a "martyr" in some situation that really gets to me. IN the case of the yelling gibberish, I would calmly explain to your dd that it gives you a headache/ makes you angry/ frusterated/ whatever and that she cannot do it in the house. If she must do it then she will have to go in another room (even a bathroom would work) and do it there as you cannot handle hearing it anymore. Perhaps you can tell her she can do it anywhere in the house as long as she is not yelling it? Whatever you can handle. If she tests you and yells around you, calmly take her to the designated room and tell her to do it there. You may have to repeat this numerous times but I have done this for certain behaviours and it works. Of course, anytime she chooses to stop yelling she can come out. Good luck!