Ok so I work in a day care.
There is a 3 yo child, he is very clever, well spoken etc but he lashes out a lot at adults and kids.
He is ok if he has 1;1 attention from staff but as soon as staff are not with him, he starts acting up, hitting, pushing, throwing chairs, he gets put on timeout and he will hit and kick staff, pretty violently. Staff explain this is unkind etc but it doesn’t hit home with him. Normally when a staff member walks away from him when he is on timeout (still in the same room) he will get up and throw the chair or pick up anything nearby and keep on throwing it.
If a child has something he wants and he doesn’t get it, he will hit the child, planks of wood, anything he can reach.
He will say sorry after a while and admit what he has done but then 20 minutes later we are back in the same cycle.
What can we do? We are consistent with time out and explaining / talking over what happened and why it’s unkind etc, we have also tried ignoring the behaviour but in order to stop others being hurt we need to intervene. It distresses other children; they are afraid of him and clearly don’t feel safe at nursery. Which isn’t nice for anyone.
Any suggestions welcome.