Why do children scream and scream?
 

I don't have children. There's a girl who lives in the apartments across the street. She's probably about 8. She screams and screams as they play. Or sometimes she just stands and screams. It's been, like, an hour of her screams. It's driving me nuts.

Children, especially older ones, scream to get attention, pure and simple!

She screams because no one makes her stop :(.

I have a 9 year old and a 5 year old -- from the time this started (probably around 1 until about 2 or 3) they "tried this" for attention (I think most kids do a little bit of this). They learned by about 2ish that it got only negative attention and they stopped.

is she special needs? if a child stands and screams for long periods of time she may be self-stimulating....

ugh our neighbors let their kids stand outside unattended in our busy apartment complex and both of theirs scream constantly. and then once in a while, she screams at them to stop screaming. most of the time though, she ignores them. i'm scared one of them is going to get hit by a car- they are always running out into the driveways and streets and running around naked. the kids are like 3 and 5 though.

As ladybugnessa suggested, special needs is a big possibility. It's possible that the child has Autism or something else. If that's the case, it might make you feel less frustrated. If, on the other hand, this is just rude behavior, I can understand your frustration compeltely and suggest ear plugs. ;)

or screaming back. Your lungs are bigger, you'll win ;)

I've thought about screaming back, but I don't want the parents to come thump me for presuming to correct their child!

I have no idea if she's special needs. I never hear the parents come out and yell at her. I wonder how they can stand it.

i never corrected my special needs child by yelling at him.

do you live on my street or what?

Is it a "I'm hurt/scared" sort of scream or a scream like she's being chased in a game of tag? I have a 4.5 and 7 year old and the only time they have ever screamed was short little ones when they are chasing each other. I guess when I was in about 3rd grade my sister could tell when my class was playing tag because she could hear my squeal through the window. :D

If she just stands there and screams...yes, she probably is special needs. It could even be that she's hard of hearing or deaf and has no idea how loud she is...and why you wouldn't hear any parents telling her to stop. Yelling at a kid isn't the way to teach them not to yell anyway, but it is just a thought. I can certainly understand how it would drive you mad. My two will start making train whistles or singing at the top of their lungs...if we were in the country that would be fine, but I try to keep it to a minimum, without keeping them from having fun, since we have neighbors.

I scream back at my kids when they scream. I mean, in a playful way I scream at them, not in an abusive way. My oldest told me how annoying it was and I replied, "I'll never do it again if you'll never do it again!" It worked. If you really want to scream back, go for it, just let out a playful horror movie scream. Maybe she'll smile, who knows. Then again, if she is a special needs child that might not be such a great idea.

I would have to go talk to her parents and find out what she is. Maybe they'll also take that as a big hint.

I have 3 children, my 7 year old has a mild form of autism but he knows screaming like that is unacceptable. If she is in deed special needs then why on earth is she left outside by herself to just sit there and scream?

exactly.... if the child has a disability (prefer that word to special needs, we all have special needs, some of us have disabilities) then why is she left outside to scream and scream....
and to be honest that would drive my husband insane.... not me I am Deaf and it has its advantages to be honest.... but to listen to a kid scream and scream and the parents do nothing about it is inappropriate regardless of whether the kid has a disability or not.

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I feel your pain. There used to be a family that lived across the street from me with a little girl that would scream incessantly, the entire day. It was an attention thing. Man, did I want to :frypan: that kid sometimes. :mad: