Hi everyone, just wanted to see if anyone was going through a similar thing with a 7 year old boy. My son turned 7 on Saturday, and it’s made me reflect on the last 2 years. At age 5 he was the most confident cheeky happy chappy you could ever meet, loved performing on stage , dancing, being the centre of attention and having lots of friends. Over the past 2 years we have seen not only a decline in behaviour but also a huge drop in confidence. He now gets overwhelmed and acts out when surrounded by crowds of kids. He refuses to get on stage and dance. He is not as chatty with my friends and speaks so negatively about things. Sometimes we think he wants to just shock people by saying daft things, they’re nearly always negative or odd / dark comments. I don’t know whether it’s because he has suddenly gone from having young enthusiastic teachers in reception and year 1 who absolutely adored him and made a huge fuss of him to an older teacher in year 2 who is constantly shouting at him and it’s all negative reinforcement. He used to love school now all he says is it’s just his friends he likes about school and nothing else. There’s the other issue. He’s allied himself with the shyest kid in the class who basically never speaks to adults and just kind of cowers away in the corner, and apparently speaks very negatively about everything and is anxious about everything and everyone. I feel like DS is copying this behaviour because he IDOLISES this kid and thinks he’s the best thing ever. I dunno DS just seems so unhappy these days and we are all so confused as to where our outgoing cheeky chappy has gone. Has anyone gone through something similar!l? Is it normal for boys to change like this and become self conscious after being super confident for so long? He even acted up at his birthday party on Saturday, even though it was all good vibes there he just seemed to look for a reason to be negative and play up. We do so much positive reinforcement , calm talking, a points system for pocket money, removal of privileges etc and don’t get me wrong he can be good as gold sometimes but so much of the time now he’s silly, shouty, out of control or negative, shy or worrying / crying. Anyone with any advice ?