Social and Emotional Issues

[badfairy]

We have just had parents evening at school and academically our DS1 is flying. We are extremely happy with the way his current teacher is supporting his needs and we are doing our best to back this up at home.

Socially and emotionally however he does find things hard going. He has 1 friend who he is inseperable from, but is pretty intolerant of most of the other children in his class - However, being only 5 he doesn't get that this puts other children off playing with him. He also is the most terrible loser and doesn't like to share things that are important to him.

He also is extremely sensitive and can't cope with seeing anything remotely sad or people getting hurt.......I suppose what I am really asking, those of you with older children, is does this automatically get better with age or are there things we could be doing to help him cope better.

In the case of my younger daughter it has but the whole of the staff had to say alert to her hyper-sensitive nature for the whole of Key Stage 1. Sometimes all you can do is be their mum and hug them.
It is not too unusual for children this age to have one intense friendship and be wary of others especially if they are more introverted thinkers. If your concerned raise this with his teacher as some schools run SULP groups that may be able to help.

You might be able to use his moral sense of not liking to see people hurt to help him begin to feel empathy for the other children in his class. I used Helen Lester's Tacky the Penquin books to explain to my children about being different to the majority and what this did to others when they were small.

My daughter was a lot happier once she could tackle Stephen Laws book 'Philosophy Files' and found a language that allowed her to express some of the ideas of fairness she had but we did have a rough few years till she got there.