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childcaremom 09:23 AM 03-07-2016
Originally Posted by finsup:
My 4 year old acted like this for a while. Adding outdoor time always helps, but where I live it's not always possible due to very cold temps etc. I had to really limit free play for a while. Instead I provided challenging activities (Lego's with instructions on building something, magnetic blocks with picture cards to try and copy, lincon logs and play animals to pretend with etc) and that helped a ton. He needed that structure for a while. Now we're back to a lot more free play (partly because we're outside more and he's getting older, learning more self/impulse control, he'll be 5 in July) but if he gets out of hand I'll get out something challenging for him. Between the challenge and having a specific task, I saw a lot of improvement!
My newly turned 4yo is acting like this, too. It has been getting worse over the past few months. I don't know if it's an age thing or the fact that his screen time seems to have gotten longer and more varied (and not in a good way) at home.

Cutting back on free play and providing more structure really seems to be the only thing that works for my guy, too. I limit his free play options and he must be sitting to do them. I have a strict no running/horseplay rule so monitor him very closely. I have increased our outdoor time and it's actually gotten worse, so not sure what else to do with mine.

I think, for my dcb, it has more to do with screen time.
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