3yr old trouble with social interaction?

[simplygreen]

Well my 3 yo DS has been in a rough spot lately and it seems to get stranger everyday! The latest is issues with social interaction. I'm a SAHM of both DS 3 and now dd 7 mths. we try to get out with a small group of friends but I admit is dosen;'t happen as often as it should! Anyways Lately when we go to the park my DS will walk up to a another child (that he dosen't know) and just flat out chuck sand, wood chips, whatever into the childs face! But I feel like he is not doing it to be mean he dosen't get how to interact with kids he has never meet! We had a rummage sale at our house this weekend and I got to see it all... he would walk up to people and start roaring in there face, he poked a lady with a pen, and when anyone says HI to him he would run behind me! I'm really trying to work with him in say hi my name is... would you like to play or just a hi how are you!

So Is this normal behavior? I feel like he is so intense sometimes with his roaring especially and acting stangely like he is acting things out? I'm not sure if it is normal? Thanks

[elmh23]

sounds normal to me.

[4evermom]

My ds used to gently poke or push kids he wanted to play with. I coached him to say "Hi, my name's ____, want to play?" That worked well because he was pretty verbal. Sometimes the other kid was less verbal and he didn't get much of a response. But other times, they'd start playing so ds got what he wanted, a playmate, without being misinterpreted as aggressive and consequently avoided.

The other thing he'd do was clown around and act like a monkey around adults. He told me he was trying to make them laugh so I helped him learn a couple of jokes so he could get the response he wanted and they wouldn't think he had a developmental delay. I didn't mind if they thought that but that meant they avoided eye contact so they wouldn't embarrass us and ds didn't get the result he wanted.

So, yes, it sounds pretty typical. I was able to feed my ds lines because he was pretty verbal and he got positive reinforcement by getting the reaction he sought.