Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Parenting

For free parenting resources please check out the Early Years Alliance's Family Corner.

Help! Is there an issue with my child!

4 replies

Rosepetal88 · 04/09/2024 14:40

I have been wondering for a while now whether my daughter has some kind of disorder. My DD (5) has always attached herself to 1 friend and doesn’t feel the need to have other friend or want to be around others and would rather be on her own if this 1 friend is not around, this has been the case in nursery and school setting. She can sometimes be a little horrible to her friend or people she loves the must such as us parents or her siblings. Although she is the opposite around other people/children. She constantly talks and over talks people, has no patience, very demanding and never sits still. She is not empathic at all and doesn’t care if she hurts her younger sibling or anyone in that matter. We have been working so hard with her to discuss and discipline when she acts like this but it doesn’t seem to work or she just doesn’t care. I don’t know what else to do! Any suggestion welcome

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
FuzzyDiva · 04/09/2024 14:42

She sounds like she could be a normal five year old. What does her teacher have to say about her?

dizzydizzydizzy · 04/09/2024 14:57

Maybe autism and or ADHD. The main thing that strikes me is that she prefers to be on her own if her friend is not there.

I think it's normal at that age to hurt your sibling and not care.

Hard to say .

Anisty · 04/09/2024 15:26

This sounds like a child that's a bit behind with socialisation and my guess is that this is more to do with pandemic/lockdown etc than any disorder.

I think, to start i would get a board game or two suited to her age (or any game where you need to sit and take a turn ) if her sibling can play, so much the better.

Just try to build up skills of turn taking, listening and patience. Get her practised at coping with the feelings of losing and winning . Essentially, an adult MUST stay and play too, to ensure it all runs well and can deal with hashing, pushing, tantrumming etc. I'd put the game away out of reach between times so this is a special thing.

Keep working on manners and turntaking skills at home - and big praise for helping you round the house - just give her one important job to do that is special to her and not too demanding but needs a bit of care - setting the table is a good one if you eat at the table.

When this is all going well, i'd have the friend round to tea. (She will be soooo proud to set the table!) Try to keep your other child out of the way, so competition and showing off behaviour is reduced.

Is she up to speed with language skills? Sometimes, where speech, language and listening are behind, frustration comes out with snatchy and pushy behaviour. By being around just to facilitate the play a little bit, you can help her manage the difficult turn taking parts of play.

Have a word with her teachers - see if they have observed anything.

One key handy tip to look for in ASD (autistic) children is a lack of pretend play. By 5, children who play well typically chunter on to themselves when playing, making up little stories and scenes (toys that are good to check this out are little figures and accessorie s - dolls house type.

Autistic girls typically tend to tidy up the house, re arrange, that sort of thing.

Play involves creating a little scene "oh, no dolly, you've fallen down, let me make you better! There! Now you're ok"

Even 5 yr olds playing on their own, you can hear this kind of monologue.

A 5 yr old that shows no interest or starts bashing the toys around - that is more likely due to delayed play skills due to either lack of appropriate stimulation/slow development.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

FuzzyDiva · 04/09/2024 17:57

As a parent of three autistic children, and I appreciate all people with autism show it differently, your child doesn’t sound like mine at all. Yes one of mine has fairly intense friendship but that’s the only similarity.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread