At a loss...

[Froglet]

I have a little boy who I am struggling to know how to help - or whether he needs it. There are lots of things going on: very able, parents splitting up, behaviour has always been an issue but at the moment there are two specific things.

 

1. He doesn't appear to have any imagination. I have never seen him voluntarily make anything or involve himself in role play. Any ideas of different approaches I could take to try and bring this out of him. He often destroys things others have made or likes to take them and walk around holding them which leads on to...

 

2. He seems to fixate on things and want to possess them to the exclusion of all else. It's not always the same thing. Last week it was the kettle and teapot from the role play area (cue others getting frustrated cos they want to play with them), the other day it was 3 trowels and he got very cross when asked to give 2 of them to other children who were desperate to garden. This afternoon it was the 6 'tongues' from the beetle game.

 

I don't know where to go, what to explore next or even whether I should be bothered at all but something just doesn't feel right.

[Beau]

I'm not sure what setting you are in so what age this little boy is. If you have niggling concerns I would definitely do some obs to get a fuller picture.

 

How is he with the other children in general? Does he interact with them much?

[Froglet]

Thanks for the reply. I'm in Reception and this little boy is 5. He does interact with the other children but it's hard to describe how (that's rubbish of me isn't it). My gut feeling is that he does a lot of shouting trying to direct and 'boss' the play but doesn't get much response from the others. They dubbed him the naughty boy months ago and as he clams up or flat out lies whenever I'm trying to get to the bottom of an incident it's sometimes hard to know whether I'm being completely fair to him. I was updating my learning journeys this afternoon and felt quite sad because the grinning boy on the photo on the front has completely disappeared. I'm trying to remember when I first noticed his need to possess things, it certainly hasn't been all year, and I think it probably did start around the time his mum and dad separated. I think I'm going to flag my concerns with our SENCO and the head is aware of him. I just don't want him to drop off the radar next year if he doesn't stay in my class.

[Rea]

He could be hearing a lot more at home than his parents think, that's if they're even trying to keep things quiet! I'd try giving him ownership of some jobs, fetching the register, tidying a certain area, turning the pc on in the morning. Talk to his parents too, they might be too wrapped up in their own pain to notice what its doing to him.