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Bullying can take three forms: all three cause harm.
Verbal:
name calling, teasing, taunting, making slurs, threatening,
belittling, insulting.
Physical:
hitting, shoving, pushing, tripping, jostling, ripping
clothing, extorting money, food or toys, punching, making
nasty or threatening glances.
Relational:
hurting others by damaging or manipulating relationships
(i.e. spreading rumours), telling someone to stop liking
someone, excluding someone socially (i.e. you can't come to
my party unless you…), threatening to withdraw a
friendship to get one's way, giving someone the silent
treatment.
About 12% of children engage in bullying behaviour, and about 10% of children are victimized. Some 50% of bullies are victims and vice versa. While both victims and bullies have adjustment difficulties, children who are bully-victims are most at risk.
Helpful Responses to Bullying and Prevention of Bullying
Aggression is a learned behaviour. Children do not "grow out of" bullying behaviour.
To be effective, bullying interventions must include help for the bully and victim,
education for peers, school personnel, parents and the community.
Treat bullying reports seriously:
Provide assistance to children in their efforts to work out the conflict.
Do not tell children to "work it out" on their own. They need adult help.
Investigate allegations of bullying rather than directing children to ignore it.
Include the bully and victim. Remember, 50% of bullies are also being victimized. Both sides need to be heard.
Support the child reporting the incident.
No one deserves to be bullied.
Use a time-out as the first response to all parties involved in bullying.
Other consequences may be needed to "right the
wrong".
Consequences must be applied consistently. Seek the support of the broader community to address underlying
causes.
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Prepared by
A. Orr & T. Sparling
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Huron-Perth
Centre, Box 100 Clinton ON N0M 1L0
Clinton
(519) 482-3931 Listowel
(519) 291-1088 Stratford (519) 273-3373
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