Aggresive behaviour from an angel, please help!

[nickiey]

Please please help, I just dont know what to do.
My Son will be 3 in December, he started going to Pre-School a few weeks ago and has developed some bad behaviour that is shocking me.
He started at school 3 weeks ago, the class is of 30, I wasnt too impressed with the level of interaction with the children so we set about looking for a smaller group where there would be more oportunity for him to build relationships with other kids and the staff. I took him today for his taster session, there were 4 other kiddies in the class and 3 staff.At first he was fine, but when they went outside to play he started running around pusshing and shoving anyone near him, once back inside he seemed to settle down but a little girl started to play with a hoover that he had been playing with 5 mins earlier ans he snatched it off her and the swung it at her hitting her hand. I was mortified.
He is such a sweet child with adults, but with other children he just changes, it was the same at the other playgroup too but we put it down to being such a large group with no adult interaction.
I just dont know what to do to stop him being agressive, I really dont want him to be the child that people dislike or dont want in their class because he is such a lovely boy at home, complient and loving.
We praise him alot and he rewards us at home or in the company of adults by being an angel-where has this negative behaviour come from

from not being used to playing with other children and from being 3 I reckon

he'll just need guiding through this natural stage of re-adjustment and firm recognition from teachers and yourselves where the limits lie

don't worry most 3 year olds have a hitting out phase (boys anyway)

even my little angel went through one

Hi Nickley
I can't help I'm afraid. I just wanted to say I'm in a similar boat.
Yesterday I picked up my 6 year old son from school and was taken aside by his teacher to be told that he has a consistent problem with punching, pinching and poking the other children. But he is a dear sweet boy at home, but I know he was a pincher even at his last school, (it was a tiny village school) it just seems now there are more children (just moved to big city school) there's more scope for his antisocial behaviour. I just wish I knew where it came from. We have never tolerated physical violence at home, he is an only child and gets a lot of attention. I am bewildered by his ability to be cruel to other children and terrified that he will aleinate his peers and his teachers.
I shall be watching the replies to your post with interest.
Good luck

Ginsberg, Sean is an only child too-We lost our firstborn Daughter and so to some extent we lavish attention on him as he is so precious to us.
Im so worried that he will too alienate all the other children-and noone wants their child to be thought ill of.
Im just rtying at the moment to really praise him when he is good, and if he is bad he gets one warning and then he is removed from the situation-i just hope this works-But part of the problem is that the hitting and so on happens when im not around! We are trying for another child and hope that this might calm him down abit.
Good luck with your little one.

Our three year old is going through a phase of being violent towards his little brother ( 16 mths ) and other kids. Like yours this totally goes against character.

To a certain extent i think it has a lot to do with feeling under pressure from DS2, who is very forward and increasingly getting more attention from daddy.

I am too at a loss how to deal with it, not overreacting, making it clear it is unacceptable and more of dads time is our current approach.