This week has been all about Anti-bullying, we want to shine a light on what bullying is and why it's important to recognise and correct this behaviour early on.
Young children’s bullying often looks different from bullying among older children and can be displayed by children as young as 3 years old. Understanding the variety of ways that young children may become involved in bullying is crucial to preventing bullying.
Did you know that bullying can come in many forms? It’s a behaviour that intentionally sets out to hurt or harm someone else, whether that is physical or psychological. It involves an imbalance of power between someone, or a group of people, and more often than not, it is something that happens over and over again.
Bullying behaviour has four key aspects:
It’s hurtful
It’s intentional
It’s repetitive
It involves a power imbalance.
So why do people bully? It’s not an easy answer, and there may be a number of reasons why people become bullies. It can happen because of a feeling of jealousy, enjoyment of power over others, problems at home, not understanding how to cope with difficult emotions, wanting to be heard, low self-esteem and even self-defence.
But bullying is never ok.
At Angels we effectively prevent and stop the emergence of bullying behaviour and encourage the development of positive social interactions. Our highly trained staff help children build the social skills to interact in positive ways and to develop resilience against bullying and learn that is is wrong.
Young children typically experiment with different ways of behaving, and it’s important for to recognise that some of these behaviours may be precursors to bullying. For example, young children may make mean faces, say threatening things, grab objects, push others aside, falsely accuse others, or refuse to play with particular children. These pre-bullying behaviours, while hurtful, are not considered bullying because they are not done to deliberately and repeatedly hurt another less powerful child. However, if they are allowed to continue, these behaviours are likely to turn into a pattern of bullying.
The good news is that such behaviours are easier to stop in the early stages. Younger children usually adjust their behaviour depending on the responses of their classmates or teachers. If they are re-directed, they change their behaviours and try out new ones.
These early years at Angels are so important to your little ones development and we want it to be the most enjoyable time for them. We teach our children to be accepting, kind and caring. If you have any concerns do not hesitate to contact us.
