3 year old constantly hitting. What do I do?

[Bluerabbits]

My son turned 3 in May. He is constantly hitting me, his dad and his baby sister. Recently he has started trying to run to strangers nearby and hitting their back when he is frustrated with us. He has no speech so it doesn’t help.
Sometimes he will hit because we said no, did something that upset him, stopped him from doing something, but something he will just hit out of nowhere, like he would be watching TV and then turn around and hit me.

He slaps, pushes, kicks, pulls hair, he will also try to poke his sisters eye and hold her head against the floor (14 months old) to the point where we have had to keep them separated and never unsupervised together.

I am really concerned and it’s starting to really frustrate me, it’s all day.

I have tried ignoring, firmly telling off, putting in time out, putting in his room, holding his hands, quietly saying “no hit, gentle instead” and showing him how to be gentle, nothing seems to work.

What do I do?

Thank you

This ⬆️

We found that getting him to repeat either the sign “finished”, or word now he’s able, helped to embed that it really is “finished.”

Don’t know if it’s the same in your house but as adults we’re regularly informed we’re “finished,” yet my stepson never seems to be/accepts it for himself!

Bang on about the tantrums too, my partner has carried him out the park (he’s a big 8 year old!) because hitting means we go home. With a meltdown if necessary, but we’re going home.

Hi everyone,

Just to give an update, he was diagnosed, and we were told he is on the autism spectrum.
I’m still not sure what constitutes traits of autism and what might simply be the result of poor parenting choices or methods on my part.
I have a lot of research to do and things to learn on autism