DS started at nursery (private daycare) about 3 months ago for 3 afternoons a week. He had difficulty settling in - getting extremely upset on being left though calming down quickly, having a good afternoon and being in a good mood when collected - and this only got better a few weeks ago; he no longer gets very upset (screaming, clinging etc.) though there are still some tears maybe every other day. But he now chats happily about nursery and his key worker at home and we're confident we made the right decision putting him in nursery (we were on the verge of pulling him out at one stage).
However in the last couple of weeks on four occasions one of the nursery staff has pulled my DP aside when he's gone to collect DS and told him he has been hitting other children. We are mortified and keen to put a swift stop to this behaviour but don't know what to do. DP tried to discuss it with DS's key worker but the assistant manager was nearby, and she jumped in and hijacked the conversation, just saying it's quite common in children DS's age. The key worker said they tell him not to do it, but apparently they can't say it's naughty - is it just me or is that a bit daft? At home when he does something bad I say 'don't do that, that's naughty' and don't see anything wrong with that (but I do make a point of trying not to say 'you naughty boy' - separating the behaviour from the child). Am going to make an appointment to go in and speak to them properly about it, but in the meantime is there anything we can be doing?