My lovely boy
Can someone give me some pointers about what they think may be going on with my lovely boy. He is 4 and a half and just started school in September.
We’ve had a few conversations with the teacher as these points have come up. She has mentioned talking to the SenCo who picked him out in an observation. Nothing she is saying is unfamiliar to us but it would be good to hear if any other parents had experienced these kind of issues and what it turned out to be ...if anything.
He is loving, happy and other than all listed below nothing else seems out of the ordinary. The only other thing to note is that he has a bit of a turn in one eye and his vision in the eye is poor, he wears an eye patch for 2 hours a day. We also had difficulty toilet training him. He still struggles sometimes and isn’t totally reliable yet but hasn’t had any accidents in school.
These are the behaviours she raised. As I said none of them are unfamiliar to us and we recognise what she is describing. Most seem to involve understanding his own or others emotions.
He is in top 25% of class
Extremely imaginative
Gets very emotional and upset at times, so much so that he cannot calm himself down. He can’t even process someone who is trying to calm him as he is so upset. Says things like “I’m so SO sad, I can’t stop my tears coming”. It’s like he can’t hear what is being said to him
Shouts out a lot in class and will carry on until his questions are answered. Has been given counters to pay for questions but can get upset when they are spent. He shouts so loudly that other children are putting their hands over their ears.
Will happily talk to anyone, almost doesn’t have social boundaries, will approach other families and just start talking at them.
Gets very upset by cold or wind - “the wind is being naughty to me'
Also gets upset very easily by cartoons etc, even Peppa Pig, if any character is ill or cross or has an accident he cannot watch and runs out of room
Difficulty transitioning sometimes from one activity to another
Has difficulty when routine in changed e.g using sportshall in school for something else when it doesn’t have lunch tables set up in it
Will happily sit watching repeating patterns such as graphics set to music (dad is a digital artist)
Gets upset and scared by certain noises (not necessarily loud noises just ones he doesn’t like)
Can’t always understand reasons for things e.g ran into my mums ankles with bike, said sorry but still maintained “but she was in my way”
Extreme frustration that comes out as persecution e.g inanimate objects are being “naughty” or “mean to him if he can’t for example open a for or get his coat on.
Have just gone through a facial emotion chart with him and thought that was good guessing. He said I just read the words. They were words like FRUSTRATED, CONFUSED, EXCITED.
Today he tells me in class that there are two boys hitting him. When I went to the teaching assistant and asked him to tell her what happened he said it didn’t happen. When we stared walking home he said it had happened.
He says he gets a funny feeling in his tummy when he looks or thinks about school, like scared.
I think he is anxious but like I said I would really value hearing from anyone else whose child has shown similar traits and what happened.