5 year old out of control! What to do?

[lilmizzi21]

My 5 year old daughter is getting out of control.  I'm not a doctor or psychologist, but I have taken several psychology/sociology classes in my quest for a degree and have learned behavioral patterns.  Her father and I have never been together.  We seperated when she was 4 months old.  When she was 3 years old we began splitting custody equally and she spends a week at my house and then a week at his house.  We try to stay on the same page with discipline and when one of us changes how we discipline or parent, the other follows suit so she knows we are not going to be played against each other.  Her step mother is also on the same page.

About 2 years ago I had to be away from her for a month and a half and then ended up losing my house so I had to move into my mother's house.  I know the change in routine/surroundings can be very taxing on a young child.  So her behavior problems started about 2 years ago.  She started out taking off clothes at school.  I chalked this up to just random misbehavior.  Then she started kissing boys at school, grabbing crotches of little boys, playing with herself, and now it is even worse.  She has been stealing things from school, lying (and really convincing lies), and now she was caught last week taking her step-brother's pants down and leaning over him, and today she was caught with a little boy in the bathroom at school during nap time.

I have been taking parenting and discipline classes but nothing I do works.  I have tried spankings, time out, restrictions from certain things like television, toys, play time, etc.  I have tried positive reinforcement hasn't worked either.  I am at a loss for what to do now.  We have been trying to keep her on a very strict schedule lately.  She starts Kindergarten in one week and I don't want her getting kicked out of school or having DFCS called on us b/c of her behavior.  I was wondering if we should try something else?  Is there something else we could try?  What do we do?  Should we take her to a psychatrist?  What do we do?

[benjimom]

I am sure you are doing all you can do.  YOu might take her to a therapist and see if they recommend a child psychiatrist and can recommend a good one.   I am sure it is really distressing for her to have all these issues.  YOu need to get some answers.  Divorces are hard on kids and they depend on us a lot.  YOu might want to bring that up too since that is when the issues started to get so bad.  I hope things get better.  Also, might be a good idea to talk to teh kindergarten teacher about it prior to school starting, so they can be aware.

[AnnieBrooke]

Take her to a child's therapist, and scan your acquaintances who spend time with her and see if your radar suspects she is being abused or seeing something she should not see.