Early Childhood and Bullying 7/18/2019 Early Childhood and Bullying Beverly Benton, LSCSW; Registered Play Therapist Beverly Benton, LSCSW; sunshine@ucom.net; P.O. Box 243 - Cimarron, Ks

Is bullying the same for Early Childhood? 7/18/2019 Is bullying the same for Early Childhood? More research has been done in the upper elementary and teen groups than Early Childhood Actually much more common in EC Fewer skills Educators are not looking for it Younger children need to be taught using experiential and are often in more autonomous settings Need to front load the bullying problem Beverly Benton, LSCSW; sunshine@ucom.net; P.O. Box 243 - Cimarron, Ks

Who is an Early Childhood bully? In EC male bullies tend to have a good social network, this is less true for females Victims tend to have fewer reciprocal friends in the social groups. Typically developing children in early childhood are not good at empathy until about 6-7 They often do not have good language skills They are not very good at understanding emotions or how to regulate them

7/18/2019 When and why bully? It happens in setting in which there is more autonomy Maybe fewer skills at playing, therefore unable to develop meaningful activity Less guidance and expectation from teachers Bullying in EC is more common because children have less refined social skills and behavior and emotional regulation skills Home life may be without responsibilities to treat others well (regardless of income) Home life may have limited resources and members must fight to have a share In EC, the bully is rewarded by respect from their peers, worth it even though they get into trouble occasionally. As children mature, with high quality environments they learn to develop friendships, empathy and self-regulation Beverly Benton, LSCSW; sunshine@ucom.net; P.O. Box 243 - Cimarron, Ks

How do we teach anti-bullying to early childhood Have class meetings and reinforce during one on one situations. From the first day of school, talk about what bullying is and what it is not How to stop it, do puppets or role modeling When it occurs, talk with both children and let them come up with the solution This helps the bully make restitution and give victim a voice and chance to be made to feel okay. Restorative justice – “ Adults in the classroom need to practice and utilize reflection “I see you are feeling angry. I can see your face is scrunched up and your eyes are wide open. You are upset that they have the ball and you want it.” More focus on helping victim gain self confidence in their abilities to say stop More play, more teacher/child relationship building

How do we teach anti-bullying to early childhood Take time to connect on a personal level with each child They say the three most important factors to having a successful classroom is Relationships – enjoy each other Relationships – trust each other Relationships – do anything for each other More focus on the VICTIM Teach them to say no or I don’t like that Its best if they can work it out, rather than tell the teacher The teacher may not respond the way the child hopes It takes the skill away from the child if the teacher intervenes And “what if they don’t do something about it?”

How do we teach anti-bullying to early childhood Early childhood programs must move toward focus on social-emotional Teach teachers how to set up rich learning environments Guide toward longer times at each activity Research reports that it takes 20-30 min to “get in the zone” Less academic Less rigor Less sitting, worksheets

What I would like to see Reduce direct instruction research shows no correlation between direct instruction in p-k and future performance, in fact, some children feel disheartened and begin to dislike school at the time they should be loving to learning. Bring back play remove from the high academic expectation to enter kinder Less sitting, fewer minutes at circle time Reduce the frequency of screens in Early Childhood classrooms We aren’t sure what it does to the young brain More games and personal interactions, LAUGHING Red light – teaches self control Simon says – teaches following adult requests Ring around the Rosie – we are all together

Other things to consider More support for parents – get them into the classrooms to help and observe Public service ads to begin to educate parents and the community on the importance of play, because many believe that good early childhood education looks like Middle School and feel their children are not in high quality because they don’t do worksheets. Explore Restorative Justice for all ages, including preschool

Resources Kyle Snow, Home Resources/Blog/Bullying in Early Childhood, 10/27/2014 Carlsson-Paige, Nancy, How ‘twisted’ early childhood education has become – from a child development expert. Eyes on Bullying in Early Childhood, http://www.promoteprevent.org/sites/www.promoteprevent.org/files/resources/Eyes% 20on%20Bullying%20in%20Early%20Childhood_1.pdf Totally Normal Objects, Nancy Carlson-Paige, https://boston.cbslocal.com/audio/studio- bz/, January 16th at 9:00 minutes of radio program. “New research shows that teaching kids more and more, at ever-younger ages, may backfire.” By Alison Gopnik, March 16, 2011. https://slate.com/human- interest/2011/03/preschool-lessons-new-research-shows-that-teaching-kids-more-and- more-at-ever-younger-ages-may-backfire.html