[snookiemum]

Just after some advise. My 3 year old (4 next month) started pre-school about 8 weeks ago. He has never been in any sort of care before with the exception of going to his grandparents home while I work (two days per week). I have him at pre-school 3 days a week and he appears to really love it. I've never had issues with him going, and he talks positively about the activities and the teachers.

About 2 weeks in the Centre Director took me aside and mentioned that they were having issues with him being aggressive to other kids and hitting and some spitting. We brought this up with DS and mentioned that this sort of thing wasn't acceptable. Fast forward to last week and the director took me aside again and said she would like to seek early intervention for his behaviour and have someone come in to assess him. I'm all for that, however I was a little disappointed that no-one had mentioned that the problem was still occurring until that point.

The thing is that he has always been the most gentle and empathetic child and I am really shocked that he is exhibiting this sort of behaviour at preschool. We certainly don't see it at home at all. He hasn't spent a whole heap of time around children of his own age, but does play well with his cousins (1 year older than him) and brother (younger). They say that he seems anxious and unable to make friends. They said that his communication skills and thought processes are way ahead of any of the other kids in the centre and that they think he might be getting frustrated with them as they just don't understand him and can't find any common ground. He has a highly developed sense of humour and a very active and vivid imagination. He loves to play games that involve a high level of imagination and I guess that it could be a big problem for him when other kids aren't seeing the game the same way he is. He talks about other kids there and says he wants friends but that he doesn't like it when other kids hit him or take his toys. I suspect he has been rejected a few times and now thinks the best thing to do is to reject other kids first, or just not join in for fear of being hurt.

I'm at a real loss as to what to do. I've agreed to the early intervention and hope that they can provide some insight, but I really want to be able to help my sweet little boy fit in. He's very intuitive and empathetic and I worry that the longer this isolation continues the more damage it is doing to him long term. I've tried to talk to him about how not all kids want to play the same games and if a child doesn't want to play a game with him thats ok, and it doesn't mean they don't like him.

Any ideas on how I could help him out?