Hi all
Our 5 year old girl is displaying very nervous habits, such as thumb sucking, hair twirling etc. She has done the thumb-hair twirling since birth, subsbreastuting her own hair for her mothers once her mother got tired of the knots.
We have been patiently just waiting without trying to draw to much attention to them and hoping they will go away, but lately our concern is growing. We gently remind her that kids in kindergarten dont suck their thumbs (she goes in sept) but she will start doing other things like licking the back of her hands and other quirky habits if she is not sucking her thumb-twirling her hair. She is very bright like her 7yr old sister, but they are polar opposites as far as personality goes. She is very shy almost to the point of being introverted, but once out of her shell will chatter the spots off a leopard, just like her older sister.
I am starting to wonder if I should have her checked out psychologically before we are faced with a bigger problem once she is in school, we know how cruel kids can be in a school environment when someone is "different". At the same time I dont want to draw any more attention to it, I rememeber having a bad stuttering problem in school and the more attention that was drawn to it (people trying to be helpfull) the worse it made it.
Anyone else here experienced this, and if so, how was it approached?
TIA
