My son is 4.5 and immature. He started school in September and every 2 - 3 weeks I get called in because he has hit, scratched and generally hurt the other children. He's good for a while and then unleashes himself. He's not cross or angry when it happens, he just doesn't seem to realise that he's hurting anyone. He is a very self-absorbed little boy. Very affectionate. Very needy. He's not autistic, doesn't have ADHD, hearing and sight are fine, intelligence is fine.
He is only doing mornings and we've just increased him to 3 days staying til 1pm and 2 days til 11.45. In his first few days I think he was completely overwhelmed by the whole school experience. Uniform, 30 kids in a class, noise, expectation to sit on the carpet and listen etc etc. He escaped school once by going out through a fire door and unlatching 2 gates - he said he just wanted to go home. Security has been ramped up at school since, but previously to this, noone had really tried to get out before.
I have sticker charts, rewards are iPad time on a Saturday morning. He is quite obsessive, loves Angry Birds, before that loved Ben 10, before that love Octonauts. He can play imaginary play for ages quite happily. Punishment-wise we use the naughty step or time out, I count from 5 down to 1 if behaviour is unacceptable and needs to stop or if I've asked them to do something and they're not responding. That all works well. I have to acknowledge that he lives in a house with a brother, they do boy things. So they don't sit and do colouring very often. They bundle and run around and play star wars and lego and other boy-type games. When they fight, I stop them. When they hurt each other they are made to say sorry and if necessary go to time out. On occasion I've allowed the one who has been hurt to hurt back so they know what it feels like.
Any thoughts?