Help with social and separation anxiety in almost 4 yr old?

Daynamite · 12-08-2024 10:10pm #1

Hi,

My 3 yr old who will be turning 4 in September has quite bad social anxiety that I think is getting worse not better the older she gets. Bit of a back story, last September I enrolled her for the three hours ecce programme to see if she would like the three hours to socialise and learn and get away from myself and her dad. It was a disaster, she absolutely hated it, it got to the point where it was causing me and her so much stress that I pulled her out of it, the crèche workers did all they could to help but it was no good.

She was never in childcare before this as her dad has her while I'm at work and for the first couple of years of her life I only worked evenings so I was always with her during the day.

Recently now she won't play outside with her sister if a new girl comes to play, she will come in crying saying that she doesn't know her and will refuse to go out and play with her sister and her other little friends just because there is someone new there.

I have her enrolled again for the ecce programme this September but I'm absolutely dreading the whole situation, I really want her to go and break this fear but I think she will be so upset by it that I won't be able to get her to go after the first day.

So my question is, is there any groups or programmes or maybe a developmental centre that I can go to with her and other kids that are also in this situation? Somewhere to bring her to help her learn and face her fear of social interactions. I have been looking online and I can't see anything like that, I'm based in mayo if that's any help.

Any info at all is very much appreciated.

Thanks.