Looking for advice please. I'm not sure if son is behaving normally for a 4 year old or not. Ill try not to drip feed. He's a sweet, caring boy. I get loads of cuddles and when he's settled he's a joy to be around. However he's really testing the boundaries. Everything (I mean everything) he has to disagree with. The sky is blue. No it's not it's red etc.
He's been 'feisty' since he was a baby. For example at bedtime he would kick/hit/thrash/scream sometimes for over an hour. This started well before he turned 1
He started talking at a fairly normal age and certainly has a good vocabulary now but I think a lot of phrases he says he just copies and doesn't really understand
Mood swings - he's so loving and caring but he can flip on a dime. He really can be Jekyll and Hyde. I can't always see a trigger
He hates lots of noise/large groups
His behaviour is better at home, I think because there's less noise & people. School are really struggling with him. He seems emotionally very immature. He doesn't seem to understand how to join in with the other kids.
His concentration has been awful but seems to be getting slightly better
The main issue is lashing out. He usually has something that he perceives as a trigger but it's very minor, name calling etc. He says 'I really try but can't stop it happening'
He's getting really stressed - I can see that because when he's stressed/anxious he jumps up and down/falls to the floor/waves his hands/makes high pitched repetitive noises. When he's really anxious he even hits himself.
I wondered about ASD (poor eye contact, obsesses over a certain thing like car washes, poor social skills) but his speech is good and he's so loving to people he's familiar with so he doesn't really fit into an Aspergers/autism bracket? I think it's starting school that's brought it to a head.
Sorry - that's such a ramble. If you managed to get to the end of it and make any sense of it then suggestions would be very gratefully received