If this is your first visit, check out the community guide. You will have to Join us or Sign in before you can post.
Receiving too many notifications? Adjust your notification settings.
How can I best help my son?

This discussion was created from comments split from: Ask an Educational Psychologist.
Replies
His writing and drawing have also become much more childish and scribbley over the last few weeks and his concentration is patchy. His behaviour is not very good and he's having lots of tantrums.
I appreciate he's only young - but I can see a difference in him and his peers of the same age. How can I best help him? I've already spoken with his class teacher re the friends issue. I think a lot of it is he has a lively toddler younger brother who people gravitate too and make a fuss of and a profoundly disabled older sister. He is extremely sensitive. We are doing our best with trying to help his confidence / self esteem, spend quality 1 to 1 time with him and inviting children round to play.
It sounds like your son is trying to interact with his peers but isn't quite sure how to go about it. Initially I would recommend arranging a meeting with the school special educational needs coordinator (SENCO), especially as his difficulties socially are now impacting on other areas of development and he is saying he does not want to go to school. Your SENCO should be able to work together with you and teaching staff to put some things in place to support him. This might involve a social skills group at school, some whole class circle times focused on how to make friends and play together or some emotional literacy work to help him build his skills in recognising, understanding and responding to emotions in himself and others. The school has a responsibility to ensure all your sons needs are met, this includes social and emotional needs.
With regards to having a disabled sibling, you might like to contact the Sibs organisation (website below). They will be able to offer you advice on how to support siblings and may offer social or support groups. Although your son is not the primary care giver, he still is part of the family and will need support to cope with the emotional implications of living with a disabled sibling.
Does your son have any speech and language difficulties? Is he able to express himself verbally? Does he have difficulty finding the words he wants to say? Is he able to remember 2-3 verbal instructions and follow them?
Resources you might find helpful are:
Books by Cheri Meiners
The book 'Nightlights' by David Fontana
www.sibs.org.uk