My 3.5 year old has been hitting and pushing at childcare often unprovoked. He has a speech delay which is probably the cause of acting out like this, he is waiting to see a speech therapist. I still want him to be disciplined on the spot because he will go to school thinking this is ok, he's also a large child and can really hurt other kids. I have asked for him to be put in time-out they have said they aren't allowed. I asked what they do they say they just redirect which i don't think is enough at his age and how often he does it. What other options can I suggest? Any advice would be great.
8 Replies
At this age, redirection and encouraging to use his words is more effective than discipline. He'll be ok at school
School is in 8 months. He can't use his words yet and redirection doesn't work, he's getting worse.
An educator needs to be beside him at all times so they can stop him in the moment, role model behaviour and give the words needed, as well as redirect. Ask the educators what they are doing to stop the behaviour. There’s no point them saying he’s hurting other children if they aren’t actively doing anything to prevent it.
Agreed. That's the support that kids get in the first year of school if needed to which is why schools have full-time teacher aids for the first year in addition to the teacher. That said, he might need to wait a year for his language to develop and no amount of punishment will quicken his language development. 8 months is a lot of time for development though, so probably too early to make big decisions yet.
How is school in 8 months, most states in Australia are school by the year they turn 6yo. 4 is way to young for school. Especially if he doesn't have verbal communication. You would need to look into funding and an aide for school.
Kindy in WA starts at 4 or turning 4. I am going to see a paediatrician again as his behaviour is getting worse. His speech is getting better but he struggles to express himself and he is really hard for others to understand him. I'm told that school won't have a problem with his speech but they will want to work with speech therapist to support him so I have no problem with that.
Don't stress then. Kindy isn't proper school. It's basically an introduction to pre primary which is the first year of compulsory schooling and will allow his teachers to see whether he's ready to go to pre primary the following year. It won't be an issue if you're still waiting for speech therapy sessions and a paediatric assessment for now then.
Also rather than focusing on discipline you need to get him assessed for Autism. It's great you are getting him into speech therapy but if there is more going on then discipline won't do anything.