I have a 5 yo DD who has always been very highly strung and somewhat sensitive. As a toddler she had really awful temper tantrums which went on for ages. She is still very prone to tears, and full on crying and screaming if very upset. She still throws herself on the floor sometimes too, and occasionally she hurts herself by hitting herself or banging her head. She seems to be overwhelmed by her emotions and unable to calm herself down. Nothing you say or do when she is feeling like this seems to help, I often ignore her until she is calm enough to be rational.
Both her reception and Y1 teacher have commented on her emotional liability. They say she cries over very small things, like her chair not being there when she goes to sit at her desk. They say that although she is doing well with her work and she is very well-behaved (in that she always does as she's told and is helpful), she is "behind" emotionally.
She has made friends in school and has a "best friend" but sometimes her behaviour makes them unfriendly to her which obviously upsets her further and her behaviour escalates.
Yesterday she fell out with her best friend and started crying. Her friend said something like "you're never learn anything if you keep crying all the time" which really upset her and she starting screaming and then banged her head against the wall on purpose :( The classroom assistant told her off for acting out and told her to stop crying.
Now I'm absolutely not cross with DD's friend or the classroom assistant here, because I know what DD is like when she's in full on meltdown mode. She's very, very hard to handle and her the things she says and her actions makes people can feel very angry towards her.
I just want to know what I can do to help her, because I can see that her behaviour isn't "normal" for someone her age and it's starting to worry me.