I have a relative who is a 6 year old boy who I will call B6. He is very bright, gifted I would imagine, although he has never been tested. I won't go into too much detail as it is not my child, but something happened the other day that has me quite concerned. The boy has a lot of challenging behaviours, but this really upset me.
I was at a family event a couple of days ago, and I walked into the kitchen. My husband and daughter were sitting up at the kitchen counter looking at a toy. B6 was on the floor petting the cat, but he kept looking up at my husband to see if he was looking at him. He started stroking down the cats nose and around its eyes then looked up at my husband again. I walked over to my daughter and my husband left the room. I was watching B6 out of the corner of my eye. He was stroking the cat, then paused his hand and dug his fingers into the side of the cat for a second then continued petting her. This cat is very placid and used to small children, so it takes a lot to bother her. A minute later, B6 caught me looking at him, he smiled up and said, "isn't she so cute" I agreed. I pretended not to be paying attention again and he pinched a bit of the cats fur and pulled it. The cat moved aside and I told him he can not pull the cats fur. He got up and left the room.
When I discussed this with my husband later, he said he had noticed B6 watching him and found it disconcerting too. He didn't hurt the cat badly, but there was something in the way he was watching to make sure he was not being observed and the way he was petting the cat as if he was exploring it rather than petting it.
Has anyone had any experience with anything like this?
