> Babies are also almost completely unable to move around by themselves and are constantly frustrated by their lack of agency. They are extremely vulnerable and utterly dependent on the kindness of their parents and other older humans in their environment. They lack language so have no other way of communicating than screaming, which is often also a cause of great distress because of an inability to communicate a basic need (and on that note, even knowing what those needs are half of the time, given that the ability to make sense of ones own senses is still being developed).

While mine did certainly scream when they were hungry (or annoyed, or bored, or I picked the wrong red crayon, etc.), they also had non-screaming verbal communication.

Both my kids started "talking" very early (I wanna say within the first or, at most, second month of being born, but "and we'll remember this when we are old and ancient though the specifics might be vague". In any case, definitely while babies), it's just that we (obviously?) didn't understand them. But they had a very definite "language" of different sounds, which was also different between them if we compare it.

Screaming is a good way for babies to get attention, but it's certainly not the only one!