Learning quietness

[Jster]

My second dd, almost 2, is so loud sometimes it drives me nuts. She just is a very loud kid, and not very verbal, so she cries/screams a lot to express herself. I'm afraid it's affecting my hearing at this point and it's certainly not good for my sanity.

Also, she doesn't want to go to the nursery at church, but she's not very quiet with me in the service, so we just haven't been going. I'm a single mama, so it's not like there's a dh to help, and I really like the peacefulness of church to sooth my soul and dd1 loves church for sunday school, too.

Any suggestions?

Tonight I tried something new, she was sitting in her highchair, buckling herself in, then as soon as she was done she'd scream ALLDONE! in her loudest voice. I asked her to say it quietly, and whispered, and she would everytime after I asked her (as if it was a fun new game) but wouldn't do it the first time even after we repeated the activity musta been 20x she loves buckles

[Piglet68]

I find that the quieter I respond the quieter she gets. So if she is LOUD, I reply with a whisper. At 2 they don't really "hear" themselves. You might practice with her doing LOUD and *soft* so she understands. Then when she is loud you can reply with a soft, quiet voice "LOUD is for outside".

[Soundhunter]

Emma is 28 months, and keeps getting LOUDER. I have the feeling that they are too young to really understand voice modulation just yet, I try and work on this with Emma but so far, it seems futile so far. Talking quieter to her doesn't work yet, she is loud even when she is talking (shouting) to herself She loves to practise voume control when she's singing and stuff, so we're going with that. I'm not really sure when it's age appropriate to start to expect this ability in certain social settings, hope some parents of older kids can remember when this happened with their kids (my guess is not anywhere near 2 yrs old)

[flyingspaghettimama]

A fun learning game: in the car or the house, take a song she already likes and knows, i.e. Twinkle Twinkle little star...and sing it together quietly once and then loudly then quietly again. You can also do it fast and slow. Two year olds get into these games quickly, they love opposites...and you're teaching her the difference for voice modulation, etc.

p.s. you can also do a "whisper game" with her in a place where you'd like a quieter voice. Say, "when we go inside of here, we're gonna play a game where we both whisper in our quietest voices. Do you think you can do it?" It doesn't have to be a traditional game with winner, loser and so forth. When you come out of the location, make sure to say "ok, the game is over, wow - you really used your quietest voice!"

And be sure to run around and yell a lot. It's a good counterbalance.