Childhood Skitzophrenia

[apic86]

I work in a pre-school and one of my good friends has a child in her class who is expressing extreme symptoms. The child is four years old. Not only has he threatened to kill himself, he has describes exactly how he wants to do it in detale. He has completely alienated himself from his classmates. He experiences extream paranoia. In one fit of rage, (for lack of a better description) he flipped over a table that takes two teachers to lift, he typically needs a teacher's help to take apart two legos that are stuck together. He will scratch and bite himself until he bleeds. He will slam objects into his face as hard as he can. When his dad asked him why he is hurting himself, the child said, "I don't know why. I want to stop, but I can't." He has tried to brake his own bones, he has tried to strangle himself with the arms of his jacket, and he has threatened to do a vast number of horrible acts to himself. The child's dad has admitted, without remorse that he and his wife do not spend very much time with him. The child has sat out on the playground staring at nothing for 10-15 minutes, if not longer. Also, there have been times when he has been physically restrained because he was harming other children. When an adult touches him while he is working up a rage, his aggression increases. He has always been quietly labled a "problem child" due to his sinsitivity and the basic four year old tantrums he threw. A month and a half ago he became ill and once he returned to school that is when his temper tantrums turned into fits of rage. It went from him intentionally hurting his classmates, to hitting, kicking, punching, threatening and running away from teachers, to now he is doing everything he can to physically harm himself.
I do not want to try to diagnose him, but I do want to know the opinion of a professional and what is the best, most effective way to handle him while he is in the classroom.

[sara3]

are you in the UK? all schools here have a nurse or health visitor available to them, and obviously a referral needs to be made.

[lil75]

This child sounds to me like he has deep phsycological problems, how does a 4 year old know about suicide I would like to know, and the fact he is hurting himself, suggests he has no respect for himself, and may be doing it as a way of releasing from something else. I suspect something terrible is happening or has happened to him, and I would have to notify social services, school physciatrist and whoever else I felt needed to know. I wish him the best of luck, poor little fella x

[lil75]

Im actually reading a book about this sort of behaviour, it is a true story written by a foster carer, it is by cathy glass and is called cut, maybe you should have a read of it

[lil75]

A link for your information

www.parentlineplus.org.uk/index.php?id=447

[daffy654]

It is highly unlikely that this child has schizophrenia but he obviously has some form of behavioural disorder. He needs to be referred initially to an educational psychologist (the school can and should ask for an assessment) .His parents should also be seeking professional help from their GP who should also refer them to psychatric services.

[Lil O'lady]

If you are in the UK, you need as a matter of urgency to be involving your school safeguarding leader and involving as many professional agencies as possible in the care of this child.
If you are not in the UK, I don't know what you can do.

[Ice.Maiden]

This poor child needs to see a professional, to determine whether he has severe ADHD or not. His behaviour reminds me of a child I used to see on a regular basis. The disturbing part of your post is the fact that he's talked about wanting to kill himself. This could come from what he's seen and/or heard at home, or even from being allowed to watch violent videos. I'm not a childcare professional, but if he was in a class of mine, I'd try and give him an abundance of attention, in as calm and quiet a way as possible. His behaviour's no doubt isolated him from the other children, and despite his temper outbursts, this could be very distressing for him if he can't help himself. His parents need to be aware of how he's acting, and encouraged to seek help for him. If he's attending primary school full-time, I'd assume that there's an SN teacher on hand. He or she'll know the right people to contact with regards to his behaviour. If he's still at nursery, then again, his parents need to be made aware that his actions are disrupting the group, and be given information on where to find professionals that can help with all this. Whatever the cause, I think you must have one very unhappy little boy here, and if his problems can't be helped, then he deserves all the help he can get. x