Hey Dolly

My DD is a pretty physical child. Used to be quite aggressive, like your LO by the sounds of it - when she wants something or when tired.

We started a new "rule" - keep your hands to yourself. The word rule is important - we now have a few, things like she asks before going to the fridge, stays in bed and stays quiet when it's sleep time etc.

The rules are supposed to tell her how to behave, not how NOT to behave if that makes sense. Much easier for them to process.

You're only supposed to have around 5 I think so we chose what was important to us. The Rules are our house rules.

So whenever we go anywhere where there will be other children, we talk about it and I ask her what our rule is about playing with other kids? And she knows now and says "keep hands to self" and claps her hands together when she says it.

The idea is you remind them before they do the behavior - if you can see a situation escalating, ask "what's our rule?" and hopefully it's enough to pull them back.

Mostly works with DD. Good luck. I found it much more constructive than saying "No! Don't do!" all the time!