Self-Defense?

One of the teachers told me that Dao defends himself when his friends tried to take something from him. Six months ago, he was not able to do that. Her comment made me realize something. Maybe hitting was a way for him to defend himself.

When he was around one, I observed that he wouldn’t do anything when other kids took the trains away from him. He simply picked up another train to play with. Around sixteen months, he held on tight to his trains so that other kids can’t yank them away from him. One time he placed the trains in the tunnel and covered both sides with his hands so other kids can’t touch his trains.

Now he would fight back. A couple weeks ago, one of the girls in his class told me that Dao scratched her face. I asked his teacher and she told me that they were fighting over a car and he accidentally scratched her. So could it be that hitting started as a way to defend himself?

I have been extremely calm and patience when dealing with him. He seems to get a bit better, but still very unpredictable when he would strike. I am a keloid former and my skin gets really irritated when he scratches me. At times, I really want to give him a hard beat down, but I refrain myself and just walk away or tell his mom to deal with him.