2yr old unprovoked face scratcher

2yr old unprovoked face scratcher

by: thumbelina - 09-02-13 15:13

Desperately need some advice before we lose some of our nursery children!

We have a new child in our setting who has come through on the 2 year old funding and is now 2yrs 3 months old. As soon as he started he started scratching other children in the face sometimes if they came within a foot of him but on other occasions he deliberately targets particular children (usually the ones who cause no trouble at all) and runs after them in order to gouge them in the face. This has happened sometimes upto 12 times within a session. Although we aim to monitor him on a 1 to 1 and intervene when necessary it is impossible to do this all session and as soon as you look away he has usually gone for someone else. As you can imagine quite rightly many parents have complained. next week we have his health visitor coming in to observe but on speaking to the inclusion teacher she didn't seem impressed that we had cut his sessions down to one hour in order to give the other children and staff some respite. a member of the nursey commitee has suggested he perhaps isn't ready for nursery yet and we should ask that he tries attending again in a few weeks in order that it is a positive experience for him.Although we want to help this child we also need to ensure our other children feel safe coming to nursery and this isn't the case at the moment and we will lose some of our children shortly if we can't remedy the situation rapidly. His mum is very understanding and his older sister who also attends is no problem at all. Apparently he also scratches mum and sister at home too and has sleep issues.

Any advice wil be gratefully received!

by: 'Old' Louise

Badger inclusion teacher (presumably from local authority) for extra funding to give 1:1 support, gradually including other children to promote social interaction in a controlled environment.  Difficult to put in the hours with one child without additional financial support.

Discuss issues with health visitor, presumably child already had issues identified and you need to know what has gone before.

by: Lil Miss Purple

At one setting I worked at we had a rota system for a little boy who was autistic and bit exessively. We had to take it in turns in half hour intervals to shadow this child. When you were on "Timmy Duty" as I will call him, we focused soley on him, if he was getting aggressive we could take him elsewhere eg to the garden, a room that wasnt being used due to those children being in the garden, it usually worked, and with the half hour intervals one member of staff isnt taking the full brunt for long periods (he lashed out at us too) It wasn't easy, and you had to focus purely on him (hard when the other children wanted to talk to you, we would have to explain I am with Timmy now, I'll come and find you when say Denise has him) Sometimes we could do an activity with one other child, sometimes we couldn't. Ratios can make it harder but it may be worth having this rota system, eg a list of names of staff in that day, working down that list all the time he is in. Hope this helps

by: Tish501

We have to do that with a terminally ill child at our setting,no speech etc...we too have half an hour 1;1 time  each with him during his 3 afternoons....that way u do not get stressed out.But I have to warn you we applied for 1;1 funding for this child and it we never got it....we just have to struggle along on our own....the funding is no longer there....

by: Lil Miss Purple

Thats the same problem we had with Timmy, we begged for funding, and as far as I am aware, it never came.

by: bagpuss

We never got funding for a child we had with huge emotional issues and language and behaviour management issues he spent a lot of time in my office playing with stationary! SEN co ordinator gave alot of advice about boundaries and expectations but he was defianatley one to one but no one would pay for it.

by: Tish501

Same here...our SEN promised the earth0--- brought totally unsuitable resources,suggestions were endless....the resources have never been used ....we wanted an extra pair of hands for 12 hrs a week.....not forthcoming ...we struggle on until April  when he leaves.....lovely little boy but they let him down.....

by: Jam

 Sounds like you're little one is doing this for attention and is getting it for the wrong reasons. Tell the  little boy off firmly, sit him on the floor near you but turn your back on him and focus your attention on the hurt child. By doing this he gets very little attention from you, encourage him to say sorry by speaking or gently touching and then praise him. He needs to learn that doing nice things will get him attention. The mother will have to do the same at home. I know it's hard but it's important that this stratagy is then used by everyone who deals with him. Good Luck

by: thumbelina

Thanks for the advice. We are going with the move away, no eye contact and a hug to say sorry as his speech is poor. The health visitor been helpful speaking together with mum to do the same at home. and referring to speech and language service. Mum made aware by health visitor though that it may be necessary for her child not to attend if things don't improve rapidly otherwise we will lose a lot of our other children.