Q. My daughter complains that her father yells at her. I think he does speak a bit loudly, but he claims to be baffled by her response.
A. Because males don’t hear sounds as soft or as high as females can hear, males tend to speak a bit more loudly than females. You may have noticed that it is hard for little boys to whisper. Adult males whose voices can be deep frequently don’t understand that a little girl may find their voices a bit startling especially when the man is speaking directly to the girl in a firm tone. It is probably not the volume that is the problem, but the manner that he is using that she is interpreting as yelling. If he just speaks to her conversationally, she will pay attention and he can get his point across just as well.