How do I persuade my 5-year old ds to tell his Year 1 teacher if he needs something, needs help with something, or if he feels ill??? He says he really loves his teacher and she is always really lovely, that she is there to help and that he knows if he asked for help he would always get a kind response, but he gets such intense feelings of anxiety about expressing his needs or feelings to anyone other than his mother or father that he would rather suffer than talk - or wet himself, if he needs to go to the toilet... I'm beginning to despair of him getting over this by himself - he was like this all through pre-school and reception, despite being otherwise very happy at school. He also has issues over this sort of thing with other children - will not approach other children to play with them, but waits to be approached, and will play whatever he's told, regardless of whether he enjoys it or not. I just don't know what to do, as if I try to talk about it with him, he gets tetchy about it, but if I ignore it, it doesn't get better, and I don't feel hugely happy about leaving him to go into school knowing that however miserable he was, he wouldn't feel capable of letting anyone know.
Has anyone else got a child like this???