5 year old doesn't recognize personal space

[KatInTheHat]

Hello there,
My 5 year old boy is constantly in other boys faces, his friends I mean, and sometimes they say stop and get upset with him, or he takes his friend's hats in the morning before school and runs away with it. It is all very exciting and fun to him but annoying to me and his friend's parents and I don't know how to explain to him that this is not acceptable. He also likes to wrestle his friends sometimes and get physical. I've tried to explain to him about this, I guess I just need to keep on explaining about what we do socially or not. He is very physical with me and my husband lots of big strong hugs but I think other kids just aren't used to it.

Any advice or encouragement about how to help him learn would be appreciated!

Hi sorry you haven't had any response yet , I have no advice but my ds5 is exactly the same.

We keep explaining, use a general reward chart and find he is much worse when tired ( often as wakes very early every day ) or over excited.

Be very specific..."You are not allowed to take hats, if I see you taking hats this morning then you won't have any sweets later....or whatever treat he likes.

With the wrestling tell him that it's only fun if it's equal...and that he is not to START any wrestling bouts....if another boy starts one with him and he wants to join in, then that's fine as long as he LISTENS for the warning words...."No, stop, ow" and so on.

It's just simpler that way.

Remind him every day before he sees the other kids. Ask him to tell you how he is going to play and what things is he not allowed to do. Afterwards go over how he played and praise him if he played well.

Your aim is to bore him into submission