Can teaching social skills at a young age really prevent bullying?
According to this article, the authors believe that the best way to gain and maintain friendships is to teach children social problem solving skills, empathy skills, and assertiveness skills. But is this really the case? Sure, learning how to solve problems socially can better the conflicts that arise between friends. Yes, empathy is helpful towards knowing what someone being bullied is going through. And of course being assertive can help to avoid conforming to bullying behaviors. The question is simple: will young children be able to understand these skills in relation to preventing bullying? How young is too young?
I think the target age should be elementary kids to middle school kids. I'm thinking fourth through sixth grade. Kids at this age are starting to form real peer relationships and are advancing towards one of the roughest times of their lives, aka middle school. Teaching children who are still with caregivers seems to be unhelpful, to say the least. They are not old enough nor are they in an environment where they could be having these interactions. I understand there is still bullying-like behaviors in young children, but I do not believe they are aware of their actions. A three year old throwing a toy at another youngster to me seems like something they can teach him is wrong, but at that age, it is more about learning the difference between right and wrong as opposed to how your actions affect others. I don not think a three year old has the mind capacity of empathizing.
The three skills mentioned in the article would definitely be effective towards my ideal target audience. I think people underestimate the elementary aged children, but I think that is when they are most willing to learn. As someone who babysits and has worked with kids in the past, I know their minds always wander and are willing to learn something reflective of the "older kids". But what do you think? What age is the right age? And are these skills the right skills?
This is ironic to me because I have an internship with the Rappahannock Community Service Board, and I work with the prevention services group. We have a second step program which teaches children how to deal with their emotions appropriately and basic socializing tools. In the grades 3rd and up we talk about bullying and how to deal with it and the right and wrongs associated with it. I think the age of 8 or 9 are good ages to begin that conversation especially in today's world of technology. Kids are being exposed to many things early in age now, so those conversations need to be started. The skills that were mentioned are of course great to know, but I also think that just being honest with kids and what is going around them to what they can comprehend as well is a good technique because honestly kids are kids and they do not always do what parents say or act as they were taught. Those are just some of my opinions.
ReplyDeleteI think it should be taught to children at a kindergarten level. It should be shown to them in a simpler why not with the word bullying but more like correcting their behavior. The conversation should start sooner but it should go more in depth at a 3rd to 4th grade level. I totally agree that 3 years old may not have the captivity to understand what bullying is. I used to babysit a 2 year old who would throw his toys. He thought it was hilarious to throw them.
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