hitting touching others

  I have a boy who will be 5 soon in my preschool.  He is constantly
  touching or hitting other children.  What can I do?  I have tried time
  out after several reminders have been given about his needing to keep hands to self.
  This is very time consuming and I  am not sure it is helping much.

[HVM Ph.D. - KDK]

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Dear Ms. Anderson,
You are on the right track. As you've undoubtedly already done, be sure to state clearly to the whole group your 'hands off' policy - i.e., that children should not be touching other children, and that hitting (and any other type of unsafe behavior - including hurtful comments)is not allowed. Tell the child that any instance of hitting will be followed by an immediate time out (no warnings or reminders). If the child does hit, place him/her immediately in time out for a duration of five minutes. Use a portable timer to time the five minutes. When the time out is over, briefly ask the child: "What got you in time out?" When the child tells you that hitting someone 'got him in time out', underscore that hitting is against thr rules; "No hitting". Then, have him/her play alone for ten minutes or so, before having the child rejoin other children.
In addition, a behavioral contingency system might be useful. Divide the school day into time segments (30 min. blocks, e.g.). Using a chart, place a sticker on each block corresponding to time periods when the child has adhered to the 'hands off' policy. Provide some modest reward for each sticker the child earns.
As a pre-school teacher, you know that the pre-school years are a time of many types of learning. One of the tasks of this age is to learn impulse control, and the type of plan outlined above (some of which you are already doing) will help your student learn to control his impulse to touch/hit other children.
*Keyword: Pre-school, impulse control, hitting, time out