6 Techniques To Teach Children To Cope With Teasing
Today, many children do not want to go to school because they are often made fun of. Teasing doesn’t just happen in the school, but anywhere (park, bus, hallway, yard, etc.). It is very important that children are able to cope with teasing.
Despite the efforts of families and educational centers to create a climate of cooperation, teasing is very difficult to prevent. Children, when made fun of, feel bad, ridiculed, etc. Parents cannot always protect children from these unpleasant and hurtful situations.
For this reason, it is important to give them tools and strategies to help them deal with these situations. If we teach them from a young age, the better prepared they will be for the conflicts before, during and after adolescence. You want to know more? Keep reading.
Facing teasing: reasons why children and adolescents tease
Draw attention
One way to get attention is through teasing, even if it is negative. It is better to feel that they pay attention to you, even for something negative, than to be ignored.
Feelings of superiority and power
Group acceptance
The feeling of belonging to a group can be so strong that children make fun of others to be accepted by the more popular children.
Not accept differences
On many occasions, the little ones do not understand the differences, they are not familiar with them, be they cultural, race, physical, etc. Instead of giving help and understanding to those who are different, they make fun of them.
Imitation
Some boys and girls imitate what they see at home in other environments where they move and act in the same way with their peers. These children may be living in a family environment or close environment of violence.
Techniques for dealing with teasing
- Reinforce your security with love.
- Try to develop in children the ability to laugh at themselves.
- Teach them not to fear ‘what will they say’. If teasing is frequent over time, parental intervention is advisable.
Teach appropriate responses to cope with teasing
Ignore them
Teasing children almost always give up when they see that they are being ignored. Because of this, we can teach our children that when they are made fun of, they turn around and leave without saying anything.
They can also counter them by saying a saying: “To foolish words, deaf ears. ” We have to make sure, as parents, that our children are firm in these behaviors, as the teasing child will try to anger and make the child react.
Learn Quick Answers
It is important that these responses do not include any insults or teasing. Quick responses will confuse the teasing child. For example, a standard response to teasing would be: “I know you want to make me angry, but what you say doesn’t affect me, so it won’t work for you.”
Play teasing
Parents can practice with children playing a kind of psychodrama. Parents can play the role of the mocking child saying the things that he would say, while our child has to practice responding to those teasing.
This game will give you many tools when it comes to dealing with teasing. The more you practice these appropriate responses, the more likely you are to beat the mocking child.
Provide lots of understanding and love to learn to cope with teasing
When children share these problems with parents, we need to be understanding and loving towards them. Look for stories about teasing that have a happy ending.
It is very important that children understand how proud we are every time they try to resolve these teasing situations.
These can be some techniques that help our children cope with teasing. If these happen at school frequently, it is important to talk to the teacher so that he can help as well.
Surely on more than one occasion your child has complained that he is being made fun of. This article can be of great help to teach your little one to put these techniques into practice.
