Someone that uses force, threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate, or aggressively dominate others. The behavior is often repetitive, habitual, and aggressive with the intent to hurt another individual, physically, mentally or emotionally.  Physical (hitting, punching, or kicking)  Verbal (name-calling or taunting)  Relational (destroying peer acceptance and friendships)  Cyber-bullying (using electronic means to harm others) Physical, verbal, and relational bullying are most prevalent in primary school and could also begin much earlier. Cyber- bullying is more common in secondary school than in primary school.

According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, close to half of all children will experience school bullying at some point starting as early as elementary school. Over 77 percent of students have been bullied verbally, mentally, and physically. Out of the 77 percent of those bullied, 14 % had a severe or bad reaction to the abuse, according to recent school bullying statistics. Each day about 160,000 students miss school because of bullying or because of their fear of being bullied. The sad fact is that every 7 minutes a child is bullied on the playground. (This is only the statistic for playgrounds not all the other places that a bully can target a child.) These numbers make up the students that experience poor self-esteem, depression and anxiety about going to school and even suicidal thoughts (bullycide) as a result of being bullied by their peers. Children who are bullied can be stunted emotionally and socially, as well as academically when their schoolwork suffers. In some cases, serious depression and attempted suicide (Bullycide) can result from childhood bullying. 85% of bullying cases had no intervention or effort made by a teacher or administration member of the school to stop the bullying from taking place.

Verbal bullying is the most common type of bullying. This type of bullying includes, spreading rumors, yelling obscenities or other derogatory terms based on a number of things including individual’s race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, appearance, etc. Bullying comes in many forms especially when it comes to teens and children who face bullies on a regular basis. They often have to deal with bullying in school, outside of school, online, and in various forms like name calling, verbal abuse and even physical bullying. With verbal bullying, it may start out as name calling, but becomes full- fledged when the name calling becomes persistent and the verbal abuse takes on the form of slander, libel and rumors. Keep in mind that the old saying that kids will be kids is not the case anymore, when a child faces verbal abuse every day and is worn down the end result can be catastrophic.

It may be difficult to spot signs of verbal or emotional bullying, but you should be on the lookout for indications that the child's self-esteem and self-image are faltering, as well as a reluctance to go to school. Signs to watch for:  Has change in eating habits and or sleeping habits  Makes excuses not to go to school/shows fear or nervousness when it’s time for school  Shows physical signs of illness from stress like vomiting in the mornings before school.  Comes home with damaged or missing clothing or belongings  Signs of physical altercations, such as bruises, scrapes and other marks  Decline in school performance  Has fewer friends  Avoids certain places or playing outside alone  Feels helpless  Blames themselves for their problems  Acts out of character  Becomes withdrawn  Increasing signs of depression  Starts speaking negatively about themselves/feels they are not good enough  Talks about suicide

As social networking and online social interaction becomes more and more popular with sites like Facebook and Twitter, cyberbullying has become one of the most prevalent types of bullying that occurs between teens. About 80 percent of all high school students have encountered being bullied in some fashion online. These growing numbers are being attributed to youth violence including both homicide and suicide. While school shootings across the country are becoming more and more common, most teens that say they have considered becoming violent toward their peers, wish to do so because they want to get back at those who have bullied them online. About 35 percent of teens have been actually threatened online. About half of all teens admit they have said something mean or hurtful to another teen online. Most have done it more than once.

Researchers including a child psychologist featured in a recent CNN article encourage parents to work with their children even when they are young. It is important to teach your child the difference in their interpretations of life situations. This helps them learn to distinguish between events and feelings. This helps them also understand and relate to the feelings of others. Teaching them these skills early is the best way for them to differentiate how others treat them as they get older. They will be able to determine if how those individuals are treating them is appropriate or not or if they are in fact being bullied.

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