Good luck with this one.  My daughter just WILL NOT STOP.  So I know how you feel.  I find the best way to silence her (for even a minute) is to give her an activity, like coloring.  As long as she is concentrating deeply on something.

I have a 3 yr. old chatterbox, I think she was born chattering...all day everyday!!!  Like I read on some other comments here, she too has a great memory, repeats back most all of her conversations she has had during the day.

We let her play games for one hour a day on the computer (nick. jr.com) and it gives us a wonderful break.  The rest of the time we try to listen to EVERYTHING she says but its hard so we, like Arna said, use selective hearing at times.  It works until she realizes we aren't 100% into what she is saying, then she will demand our attention. 

Another thing we do is get her working on some little project, start her out and when she gets into it, she will forget to constantly talk, this is good for about a half an hour...afterwards we will have to listen to the minute details of it but hey...its better like this than if we had a child that couldn't talk. 

The only time there is peace around my house too is when it is empty and they are at school, there dads or elsewhere so that is the only suggestion I have, either get some time away now and again or enjoy the peace while he is playing elsewhere. You really miss them and are happy to see them back!

your born with it. i do it the brain is so active that its like you have to say everything thats on your mind.

its not something you can help. i will walk in from work and then i bombard my family with whats happened all day. meanwhilr they want to "unwind" then 5 minutes later i find myself doing it again.

he needs to be constantly active he is a"doer" thats why he bombards you i know its frustrating. but its also frustrating to him in not getting answered.

i hope this makes sense but the person doing the talking also feels frustrated and if you ignore the person it doesnt help because its like a vicious circle. they want to be answered you dont want to answer them or talk they want to talk.

if you can as i said try to keep him occupied. talkative people live a very stimulating life and get bored easily and even find people that sit in silence boring.

this is seeing it from the other side  i really do identify with your son

when he goes to school he will have problems with the teacher. but what do you want  achild that sits there like a robot or one that is confident in his approach

maybe you can have "some time out" even if you left him for an hour or two with a close relative jsut to give "me time" to yourself and that way it will be like a compromise

but i beg you dont change his character in anyway because you have a boy there that will grow to be curious about everythng around him and he will be confident and loving

cheers annie

Hmmmmm only things that spring to mind are:

Earplugs

Ability to switch off

Gag

Sound Proof Room

Yep been there done that, best thing to work for me was the ability to switch offf/zone out

xxx

My advice is to count your blessings!!!

I have a 14 year old son with Down Syndrome who has virtually no speech. I would give anything for him to be able to communicate and even say his own name.

This stage of their development, being able to ask questions, is the way they learn about the world. My eldest son, now 21, would have been able to talk under water with a mouth full of marbles. He talked non stop, and learnt so much, until he became a teenage boy and lost the power of speech and started that wonderful teenage mumbling (lol). How I missed his conversation.

Enjoy, treasure and nuture this amazing child. Answer his questions, and if you dont know the answer find out together. It is certainly a gift!

Have fun! Miriam

Yup!  I constantly get comments from strangers about how talkative he is - and I was told off one day at the shops by a stranger because I asked him to stop asking questions for a minute!!  Questions are good and I am very proud of his linguistic skills and his desire to learn - but the same question five times in a row after I've explained it each time just gets frustrating!

You can't ignore him, he just gets louder and more persistent - until you make the appropriate response - hard when you are on the phone or talking to someone.

My darling son even talks through movies, books, music and he needs constant feedback about whatever he is doing - even his sister has started copying the "look at me, mummy" and the "you're not listening!".  So, I don't have any easy answers - make the most of the moments of quiet when you get them and follow my other tips here.

Painting, playdoh, building block, anything where he has to concentrate for a while. Although be prepared to hear all about it when he's finished LOL

Dvd's are good for a bit of quiet time, maybe even a bit of time with computer games will work. You can get educational ones if you prefer.

You could also channel it into a learning time to do numbers, letters and anything else like that. There are a number of books for his age. Kids usually love learning and get a big kick out of pretending to play "school".

my 4 year old never shuts up. she even chats in her sleep. the only way we have found to get her quiet is Dora the explorer and a few other cartoons. then she will watch them and once they are finished she re tells the story. 99% of the time she tells the whole story perfectly. she has a wonderful memory.

get him to try other things like colouring and play stuff like that or you can get them to do school stuff. or write what he says and make a story. we often do that with our daughter. she is a wonderful story writer.

We use the selective hearing and concentration method.  That is, you let them talk and just add uh huhs, yes, really in occassionally.  Obviously, I do still listen to what is being said, but have developed a way of filtering the nonsense out and just hearing the key words and the tone of voice. 

It works really well, and while you are still listening, you are selecting what you hear.