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Behaviour/development

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Age 5, can't share

1 reply

Canada1980 · 07/05/2024 14:50

Hello,
My son is 5 years old. He has always struggled with friendships and attached himself to very mean child when he was in nursery which caused him a lot of upset but at the same time he wouldn't play with anyone else. Then there was covid etc etc he has not experienced much social interaction with other children. Now he is in school and he is struggling... He can make friends but as long as on his terms, he cannot share and would rather sit alone than try to play someone else's game. He won't even try. He also struggles with entering play and sits on the sidelines observing. It breaks my heart and i am trying so hard to help him with all this. I would just love any helpful advice and ideas to encourage empathy and kindness to peers. TIA.

OP posts:
skkyelark · 16/05/2024 20:58

Have you had a chat with his teacher about it? What do they observe, and do they have any extra support they can offer him? Some school have small groups to help support children who need a bit more help with social skills.

How is he with very structured things like turn taking in a board game? If he's okay with that, how about taking turns to add a piece to something you're building out of lego/blocks/magnetic tiles so that he has to adapt his choices to yours just a little bit (agree that you're building a castle, say, but not the exact details of every brick you put in)?

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