5 year old won't stop biting at school

[becknnico]

My son is 5. Recently he has started to bite at school in moments of frustration. He is an excellent with communication and knows all the remedies for combating conflict physically. He knows how to calm himself down and express himself however he is very impulsive. The teacher has even met ione having to 'pull something out of the hat' as he already demonstrates a clear understanding of how to work through anger healthily. He does not do this at home either. This is the 5th time and I'm hoping for some advice here....thanks

Try coming down on him like a ton of bricks?

If he has all the life skills you list then there really is no excuse, is there - and 5 is a lot!

I think I would go for a combined 'Ton of bricks' and reward chart approach.

Set out some real consequences if he does bite - loss of TV time, loss of a particular toy or treat - things like that. At the same time, have a reward chart - he gets a sticker for a bite-free day at school, and a certain number of stickers means a little treat - trip to the park, special dvd, icecream etc.

Sorry, to be clear I meant biting five times is a lot. Age 5 is still very young.

Understanding the information given to you about how you should manage your emotions is very different from having the emotional maturity to be able to do it at times of high arousal.

I'm not condoning the biting but I would imagine that sanctions have already been tried in school so introducing bigger ones isn't likely to be that successful.

I would ask the teacher to record when it happens, what has happened just beforehand, what's going on in the wider classroom, etc so that you can look together and try to identify what is triggering the biting.

Some children struggle with the sensory environment of the classroom, their stress levels go up and their temper ends up on a hair trigger. Some find social interaction very hard work and get very frustrated with other children not doing things their way.

These are just examples of how the environment can set young children up to fail to manage their emotions, even though they know logically how to do it.

See if you can work out if there is some aspect of school your DS is finding a bit overwhelming. If you can, some extra support at this time might help stop the biting which will benefit him and the other children.

Thanks so much everyone! Yes it does seem like when he is crowded and also frustrated that can trigger it. I've started a behavior chart for when he has 'days he obviously handled moments of anger properly'. At first I thought it was a specific kid but it was not that either. I've thought of sitting in the classroom once a week to see if I can catch anything the teacher is maybe not noticing. I feel like that alone would alter the scenarios though in itself and not be good necessarily. We will see how next week goes. He has been good this week after Monday but it's always when you think it's curbed......chomp:(