My Son is Destroying the house

Question

I have a 3.5 year old son who we are having behavioral problems with and have tried all sorts of things to help him and don't know what to do next.

He started with peeling the wallpaper off the wall, as someone who is very anal I chalked it up to trying to remove a imperfection which led to a bigger mess. This has grown however to now he makes holes in his wall. This all started about 6 months ago and took us by surprise as my daughter (who is now 5.5) never did anything like this, however now she will draw and color on the wall which she never did before.

We had thought we were putting too much pressure on him to potty train (he will pee but not poo in the potty) so we let up on that. I am worried for him as he will soon be starting pre-school and I don't want him to hurt someone's child or destroy the property of the school.

We are a low income family and would love to take him to councilor or a professional but our income will not support this.

Answer 1

make HIS room simple..and in a way un-destroyable..

when i say un-destroyable..i mean like BASIC. no colour on walls..lack of furniture etc..

then when he even starts to destroy something put him in there and take away a toy each time..

and make it a good toy he likes

and don't return it..until HE fixes what he did...or helps in a significant way.

keep at it and show him he will be punished for it.

hope all goes well. good luck =]