How to help our 2-year-old adjust to new daycare where he's violent and pushy?

Question

Our 2-year-old has just moved from a fairly loud, apathetic, semi-violent daycare, to the point where he was coming home with bites and bruises almost daily, to a new, nicer daycare closer to our work. They have activities and there is more structure to the day.

However, 3 days in we are finding his behaviour is becoming a challenge to the day-carers and he has already poked eyes, pushed and generally being very rough with his new friends.

This is very out of character to what he is like at home with us as he's never violent or confrontational, he's gentle with our pet dog and is lover not a fighter. One thing worth mentioning is he has just entered the 'mine' phase also which does not help and is quite possessive over his toys.

We want to give him more of a chance at the new daycare, but struggling to think of strategies to help both the day-carers and our son to make this transition easier, and less incidental! Any thoughts or suggestions on this would be most appreciated!

Answer 1

Mostly just a suggestion and less of an answer, but I would try putting your son into groups of other children to play while you are around. This shouldn't be the daycare because the intention is for you not to be there long term, but somewhere else that is roughly equivalent to that. In this case, you would be able more closely monitor his behavior than what the daycare workers would be able to, and to correct the behavior as it happens.

Two year olds have a hard time if you are punishing or talking to them about their behavior at a later time as opposed to when it happens.