5 yr old ds does EXACTLY what he is asked not to.. any specific techniques to help?

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For example, if his sister makes a 'sculpture' in her room and asks him not to touch it, he will immediately jump on it. If he is asked not to play with the lights in the car, the first thing he will do is to play with the lights. He's generally in a ...mischievous phase at the moment but responds fairly well to warnings and then naughty step type responses for other 'naughty' behaviour. This thing of doing exactly what he is asked not to is just harder to manage (and totally maddening as he is doing it so much) and I wondered if any one had any tips??

I find asking children to do something positive rather than warning them off doing something negative or punishing them after the event is often better. Tell him what you want him to do..... guard the sculpture for his sister? wipe the car windows with the chamois? ... rather than what you don't want him to do. And if there is something you really don't want him to do give him a very good reason why not.

Otherwise it's like being faced with a big red button saying 'DO NOT PUSH'... we want to push it. As Billy Connolly said... Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cozy, doesn't try it on

Thanks Cogito, the big red button is overwhelmingly attractive to him I think, so it makes sense to stop putting it in front of him...

I was reading just yesterday about how, when given a 'negative' instruction, the brain instinctively follows the main instruction then has to cancel it out.

Eg, "Do not think about that big purple elephant" results in you instantly picturing a large purple elephant and then having to try to cancel it out.

I guess it's pretty hard for an inquisitve 5 year old to action the 'Do Not' when the action itself is so tempting!

He is a very inquisitive boy , when he was a baby one of my friends said he looked like he wanted to "eat the world" and he hasn't changed much, always wants to try stuff and ask about everything.

This behaviour does feel a bit different, a bit... compulsive - as it tends not be new things but him doing something that he knows is 'naughty' (even before we say anything about it). dh remembers having some mild OCD traits when he was little and I do wonder if there is something like that underlying what he's doing. I don't think I've made clear that he does it A LOT...