Videos

How to Combat Bullying and Talk to Your Kids

Added Oct 03, 2017 •

Copy this URL:
Embed code:	<iframe class="edlio-embed-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="360" src="//www.sasr.org/apps/embed/?v=159419" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Change dimensions

October is National Bullying Prevention Month! Let's hear it from a local Mental Health Counselor on knowing the signs, what to do, and how to talk to our kids about bullying. Together let us work towards making our school and communities a safe place where students can learn and grow!

Show Transcript

the kids are back in school we want to arm them with the tools to handle bullies and also make sure that we as parents are able to help them along the way Renee czerwinski is a licensed mental health counselor with Pacific Medical Center's here to kind of walk through this thank you for being here at the first of all bullying is it a bigger problem now than it used to be are we just hearing more about it I don't know if it's necessarily a bigger problem I think the biggest difference now is with the internet at the bowling doesn't just take place at school during school hours it takes place now at home in the evenings on the weekends and can be even worse once they do get home and have better access to kind of get unlimited social media that's out there yeah it is everywhere it's everywhere reactive Belize or bullying how can we work to prevent it or to take steps now that could stop it the best way to do it is you know working with your own children and letting them know kind of hard to be empathetic to somebody and understand feelings and emotions and give them a chance to explain about what's happening for them if they're feeling you know stressed and overwhelmed why they notice something happening encouraging them if they see something to say something and then just know that you it's not just a phase that happens if it is serious and we have to really take it serious what should we tell our kids if faced with a bully so you know I talked to Monica about arming them with the right tools we doing teach them to be assertive and not so making sure like if they're in a situation maybe stay at school to be able to say something like you know I don't like the way that you're treating me and loud enough so that maybe someone else overhears you want to teach them how it is okay to walk away and kind of step away from a situation that can be dangerous and you know as much as kids younger kids and teens don't want to involve the adults they really need to to make sure that everyone is safe and that it is okay to talk about it so you're saying Empower them to do it absolutely are some signs that a child may be being bullied and things to really watch out for is any increased anxiety stomach aches or any illnesses that I don't want to go to school and you know that they're there fake child kind of rushing to the bathroom as soon as I get home cuz they held it all day cuz I didn't want to go to the bathroom for whatever reason and any missing money and if they're avoiding too kind of going online to do things and then a crying when they are see if you can notice you know kids pick up a phone and I was going to have a reaction and they put it down ask what it is so be inquisitive and what are some steps that parents or caregivers can take if you're noticing the signs what is the first thing you should do validate your child's feelings about what's happening and let him know that you understand there's nothing wrong with feeling upset about kind of how they're being treated and undivided attention you know as much as bra busy with everything caught up in so many other things but sit down with them and actually talk to them shut off everything else and then ask them to be really kind of open-ended you know not just how was your day but you know what's happening at school all you know is there something that's upsetting you is there anything that you want to talk about there is that kind of thing where you can involve the school go to the administrators talk to the teachers they are on your side they want your kids to have a safe School environment to be in to be able to learn and if it's taking place on social media and that there are other things that you can do a lot of social media sites will have ways to kind of make a complaint to stop someone for being aggressive or harassing and you can you go to the police department and file harassment charges if someone is harassing you La Comedia and the telephone and other ways also there are resources out there make sure that you're armed with the tools and information as well absolutely this if you can great information preciate your time no problem thank you and if you would like to see more of our healthy living let's just go to q13fox.com healthy

Videos

How to Combat Bullying and Talk to Your Kids

More videos in Counselor