My ds is 4 1/2 and has recently started pre-school. While he seems very normal in many ways, I've been concerned for a some time about his reactions to things. All I can put it down to is that he seems to have some deep-seated fears or insecurities that affect him every now and again, and I don't know where they've come from.
For instance, I took him to an occupational therapist towards the end of last year, to try and improve his fine motor skills. (He shows little interest in drawing and until recently, couldn't hold a pencil properly). Anyway when I arrived at the OT's office, she said that I could sit in another room with a television monitor while she was assessing ds, so that I could watch what was going on. She took us down to this room where the tv monitor was set up, and said to ds "Mummy will be sitting in here while we are in the other room". She was a very nice woman and there was NOTHING threatening about her at all. When he walked into the room, he had a very hesistant look on his face and then started to cry, saying he wanted to get out of there - he actually got very agitated. So I ended up sitting in the same room with them while she was doing the assessments. Later on, she commented to me that she hasn't seen a child react like that before. It's like he becomes inconsolable if he doesn't like the idea of something, or if he's afraid.
Yesterday at pre-school, the teacher wanted the kids to make footprints with their feet, using paint. From what I could gather, all the other kids were happy to do this but my ds became very upset and refused to do it. She asked me if there was any reason for him becoming so upset by this. I have NO IDEA at all, quite frankly. he also doesn't like face-painting and will not allow anyone to put paint on his face, while other kids seem to love it. I asked him why he didn't want to put his foot in the paint and he just said that he 'didn't want to'. (We've hardly ever done any painting at home, but that's no reason for him to be afraid of it, IS IT?!) There are also a couple of things that he's taking AGES to grasp, like apparently he still goes and takes a toy away from another child if he wants it, despite being told by the teachers that he must find something else to play with. In some ways he seems very intelligent and picks things up quickly (he has an excellent memory), but with these other issues, I'm on the verge of having him assessed. On a day-to-day basis he seems fine and is very up-front with what he wants (he's not at all shy), which is why this is such a contradiction. Does anyone have any experience of a child being so fearful? I can't help feeling that something is wrong somewhere.
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Please help - getting very worried about ds
19 replies
Lethal · 02/02/2005 06:40
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