Personal Boundaries with Children at School

In the beginning of the year my son's K teacher explained to the class that everyone has an imaginary bubble around them and that ,while at school, it's important to stay in your own bubble and not pop anybody else's. This has also been very helpful at sports when kids have trouble learning how to get control of the ball without touching the other player.
At home I have discussed with him that he needs to stop and ask before hugging or touching another child.

Well....you could always make her stand on a street corner wearing a sign....lol....just kidding.

I'm assuming she is Kindergarten age-ish?
There's a little girl in my son's THIRD grade class like that--almost starved for attention (not saying yours is)....

I think you're doing the right thing to keep talking about it, role play some more, etc. So I'd keep that up for sure!

Really, it's kind of sad that we have to "de-affection" them, but I understand your concerns about the other kids' personal space.

You don't say how old she is, but baby talking among girls in elementary school is very common. Annoying as hell, but common. DD is in 2nd grade, I hear her do it with her friends all the time; same with my 4th grade son's girl classmates, heck he even does it if he's been hanging around with the girls a lot.

Regarding personal boundaries, you have to explain to her that not everyone likes hugs. If you haven't had the good touch/bad touch talk yet have it first. Then explain that while hugging is not always a bad touch if the other person doesn't want to be hugged/touched it's inappropriate as well.

Does she have something she dislikes? My ds is a toucher, but he hated having his hair messed with. We explained to him that his hugs/pats/etc annoyed other people the way it annoyed him when other people messed with his hair. Reinforce it with her at home as often as you can. Explain that while she's not getting in trouble at school yet, if it continues she will. And she will, the schools really frown on excessive hugging/touching - it's just too slippery of a slope so they don't even want it started. I understand you want to be gentle, but if gentle isn't working you might need to step it up a little - you don't want the school to take care of this for you, that would be even worse for your daughter. FYI - many instances of child molestation start with tickling. If she tickles the wrong kid she could get herself in a ton of trouble.

MY GD was the same way until about a year ago. I think she finally outgrew it. I talked to her constantly about "personal space" but she was always so caught up in her own excitement, she was hugging people before she realized what she was doing.

As for the baby voice, she does that too. Not very much anymore, but still on rare occasions. I tell her one of two things: 1) I don't understand you when you talk like that; please speak normally; or 2) I would love to talk to my big girl. I'm so tired of babies. Wish I had a big girl to talk to! She would change up right away!

Good luck!

My SD and DD are exuberant people. DD will tell me now, "Mommy, keep your hands to yourself" if I tickle her when she doesn't want to be, because I've said that to her. I would continue to work with her on it. "DD, I don't understand that kind of voice. Please use your real voice." Or "DD, you need to be more gentle with people. When you give them a hug, pretend they are fragile and don't try to knock them over." Kids will often show off to people. When we have friends over and DD starts showing off (exactly the way her sister did), we take her aside if she doesn't get the hint and tell her that it's enough, please calm down. Practice keeping her hands to herself when you sit next to her on the couch or in the car. When she does right or you notice improvement, tell her. Help her gauge what's really good and what's borderline.

My little one is like that. She had been in the same preschool since 19 months old and the school had no problem with the children giving hugs. With that (moving forward to 5YO), when she would meet someone new, could be a neighbor, could be a new friend at school, or could be another kid in a shopping cart, she would say I want to go give them a hug. We would allow her to, but only if the other person wanted the hug. So she learned to ask if she could give hem a hug.

Now in Kindergarten, they don't allow any touching during class, not even a high 5. However, in after school care, they are allowed to hug and she give hugs good bye to some of her most special friends. Sometimes the school has outings and she sees some of her friends and they run to each other to embrace like they haven't seen each other in years.

So I would just remind her that not everyone is comfortable with hugs and she should ask and be prepared for some kids to not be comfortable with a hug.

It is so special to see the love of children.