4 year old hitting himself on the head

[Itscurtainsforyou]

Over the past few months my 4 year old has started to hit himself on the head, both sides of the temple with one or both hands.

It seems to be getting more frequent and I'm getting concerned.

He's generally very bright and sociable so I don't think he has asd or similar. He hasn't had a major upheavals or life events (goes to school in September, been at the same nursery for 4 years).

I've asked him why he's doing it and he says he doesn't know. I've asked him if it hurts to think and he says yes, but can't tell me any more. He doesn't appear to be in pain (either as a cause of the hitting or as a result of it).

He's also recently started sucking his fingers which he never did before.

I'm getting quite concerned that there may be an underlying problem. Nursery don't think there is but I'm not convinced. We try to stop him/distract him from doing either the hitting or finger sucking, when we do he gets upset.

Any ideas/experience of this?

TIA

[ppeatfruit]

How does he feel about starting school? Has he visited it? he may well be worrying about it. Sit down with him and get him to draw the new school, the teachers and children there (don't make a big thing of it though) you can just gently ask him about the drawing he does.

Is he called names like stupid by a friend or a family member ? Sometimes dcs feel they are to blame if they are called silly names. Or it could be something he watches on Telly.

[Itscurtainsforyou]

Thanks

He's really excited about starting school, we've been to visit, talk about it as we walk past, we're bigging it up a lot to make it sound exciting.

We're perhaps a bit overprotective, we don't allow name calling (family live away so he rarely sees them without us, so we'd probably know (& stop it!) if there was anything like that. Also TV is mostly cbeebies and we tend to talk about anything slightly negative to explain it. Not sure what else to think of.

[omama]

does he go to preschool or nursery? could it just be something he is copying from his peers?

my ds started school at just turned 4 & he started hitting himself in the face soon after, along with a whole host of other minor tics like making strange noises, excessive blinking, mouth opening etc. I was concerned & researched but apparently it is very common at this age to suddenly start doing strange things! Observing him, sometimes he does it when he's anxious or doesnt know what to say when someone speaks to him, but sometimes it is just an act of silliness. In the playground all the boys are doing it & copying each other & laughing.

I've found the best thing to do is ignore it, the more you react & the more of a rise he gets out of you, the more he will do it. Similarly with the tics, ignoring them seems to have been the best bit & they disappeared pretty quickly. hth

[ppeatfruit]

Maybe an idea to stay at the nursery for a morning, or talk to a worker there. I was supply at nurseries and sometimes the teacher and or teaching assistants can be very unpleasant to the children. Or another child there? do the same with the drawings and don't ask him questions just let him talk as he draws. Good luck

[ppeatfruit]

Yes omama could be right too of course!

[Itscurtainsforyou]

Thank you! Some interesting things I'd not thought of.