6 year old daughter masturbating

[venusmay]

Posting on behalf of a friend who is worried about her daughter.

Her dd just turned 6 and has never displayed any of this behaviour before.Over the last three days her daughter has been saying that she wants to play alone in her bedroom. She had closed the door.Yesterday my df said her dd was crying after she came out of her bedroom and then went to the toilet.

There was another occasion this morning where her dd asked to play alone in her room, she closed the door and was anxious no one came in.After a long while my df said she went in to her dd room just thinking she would get her washing,she walked in to find her dd masturbating on the floor. Her dd shouted her to get out and closed the door. Apparently my df was shocked and later saw dd go to the toilet,her seemed dd sad and withdrawn.

We are both not sure how to deal with this or if her dd has been exposed to something at school to trigger this.Her dd generally has been anxious recently,her teacher at school yells constantly at her class and she’s not wanted to go to school because of this.

Df and I want to know is this normal? I think df is more shocked that her dd knew to do this in private and that it I said totally out of the blue and never before demonstrated this behaviour. Could the class have learned about this in PSHE?

Was she rubbing herself against something while fully clothed or was she masturbating like an adult woman? Is her Internet access locked down?

School don't discuss masturbation until they cover sex (usually in y5/6) and my kids said that it's so vague that they wouldn't know how it's done- just the word really. I would be asking the NSPCC for advice.

I asked my friend and apparently her dd was in her pajama top with just her knickers on and she had her hands down her knickers. Df was concerned that her dd shut the door and her dd seemed to think she was doing something wrong. Df has been very supportive and had a chat to her about her body,privacy but her dd said she doesn’t want to talk about it.

She wasn’t rubbing herself on anything.

I'd wonder more if she had worms, maybe she's itchy, irritated or sore

If that was the case why would she be secretive about it?It wouldn’t make much sense

Embarrassment.

I've told my kids if they don't wipe probably then they'll get itchy.

I would talk to her at bath time, and ensure she is not sore, playing in that area is not normally considered any more important to a six year old than touching her own ears. Dont make a big deal of it, all the same, some common sense and delicate handling to encourage her to only do it while in the toilet is favourite.
What is strange, is that she tells your Df to get out, so she is certainly more aware than she ought to be for her age, that it could be considered taboo. Not sure how much they are told at school her age, it appears every school is different. Fairly normal for children to put their hands down their pants though, just say " if you must do it go into the loo, and wash hands after".