DS turned 4 at the end of December
We are having some behaviour issues with our 4 year old mostly at school but sometimes at home as well. I have just been told that the school counsellor will be coming to observe him in class and make a plan to address his behaviour, which sounds really serious to me.
We live in a country where mandatory school starts at 6, but a sort of preschool is provided by the government from ages 3-6 and is free. Almost all children attend this. It is also in a language that we do not speak at home, but I am told by teachers and other parents that he speaks and understands well.
His teacher has said that he is not listening or following directions in class and also is pushing and hitting the other children. When she asks him why he hits or pushes he just says he doesn’t know. When I have prodded a bit more at home he has told me that the other child didn’t let him do something but won’t give much more information than that. I am so so upset about this as all other times he is such a kind and caring boy. At home we do have to repeat ourselves a lot but I don’t know if that’s because he’s not listening or because he genuinely doesn’t hear us. He will also occasionally hit his little brother (18 mos) and he gets timeout for this but it doesn’t seem to make a difference.
I get that teachers see a lot of children so if she thinks it’s a problem it probably is out of the ordinary but I also thought it was fairly normal for 4 year olds to be away with the fairies a lot. The hitting is obviously a major concern for us though.
He is the youngest in his class, born on the last possible day to be included in the year. And also seems young for his age maturity-wise so I don’t know if this is part of the problem.