Helping your child develop negotiation skills and empathy gives them the tools they need to resolve conflicts and consider other people’s feelings.
Talking with your child about their friends, the classroom and playtime lets them work through ideas or things that have happened during their day. Learning to talk about things that are happening and think about different ways to deal with or look at a situation can
provide your child with tools to deal with bullying situations too.
Talking about conflict
- What is happening, and is it fair?
- Who is involved? Consider each person’s feelings, and if they feel included.
- How did they react? Would they like to be treated that way?
- What could they have done differently?
Letting your child know to talk to their teacher and to you about any bullying behaviour can provide support and help to put an end to the situation quickly.
Recognising bullying
- Physical (pushing, hurting or damaging someone’s belongings).
- Verbal (name calling).
- Social (spreading rumours, excluding others).
- Psychological (threatened or stalked).
- Cyber (using the internet to harass someone).
Talking to the school
If your child is involved in bullying at school, talking about this problem with your child’s teacher can help stop the behaviour from continuing. Your child’s teacher is in a good position to understand the relationships your child has with other children at school.
If your child is bullying others
Discussing how to play fair and be a good friend can give your child the tools to avoid bullying behaviour. Asking how others feel, or how they would feel if someone treated them that way helps to develop empathy.
If your child is bullying others, there may be something causing this behaviour. Talking with your child about how they feel can help you understand and provide support.
Learning about bullying
The Take a Stand Together game lets school-aged children explore social situations, bullying and learn skills to deal with social issues. Children can build an avatar and interact with animated videos where they have to choose the correct behaviour to deal with a situation.