For the last 3 months on and off, my 3 and a half year old son has been behaving aggressivly at nursery - hitting, pushing, pinching, scratching. He never used to do this at all - i used to see him being hit by other children in the park/playgroup etc and he would never retaliate. He seems to be making up for lost time now. A few months before this he started hitting and pinching his dad and me, and he's still doing it. This was after a stay in hospital, so i've always thought it could have been related to that. But the new development is hitting out at other children. It's not all the time, but he seems to 'turn' from being sweet and lovely to aggressive in a very unpredictable way. We always pick him up on it, and give him lots of praise when he's being good. But it's all getting a bit much and we feel at the end of our tether. I suppose what i'm wondering is if anyone has any thoughts on how you get a sense of what behaviour falls within the range of so-called 'normal' for a 3 year old and how do you know when it goes beyond that? I'm trying not to over-react but it's really depressing seeing him behave like this. (By the way, we have never hit him at all.)

Penny do you think he might be bored? Have you tried taking a day off nursery and spending some extra time with him (difficult I know) Is he frustrated because he can't do things that he wants to do? My ds who is just over 4 throws a complete wobbler when he can't do things immediately - I can't do anything with him he just has to calm down and come back and try again when he's ready. No answers for you, but just some possible reasons. My friend said the other day that her 4 year old was foul for 6 months before he went to school but he was a bit older than your ds obviously.