Bullying is a terrible thing to go through but for 20% of children it is their reality and, with the advent of cyber bullying, this number is only going to increase unless we do something about it. The negative impacts of bullying are severe, and not just for the victims, but also for the perpetrators, bystanders, and caregivers. This course looks at bullying from each of these perspectives, providing case studies to illustrate the issues discussed, and considering different strategies for handling bullying for every participant.
The Bullying Awareness Diploma Course plunges you into the world of someone who is facing bullying at a young age by opening with a case study, told from the first-person perspective of someone who has gone through it. This provides an idea of what it is to live with bullying, the reasons it can occur, and how it affects the lives of those being bullied. From this sobering story, the course moves on to explain what bullying is, the types of bullying, and how to get help and support.
Why bullying occurs may be more intrinsic than we may like to consider. The course explores the anthropological viewpoint of bullying being part of life for many species, not just humankind, and a cultural behaviour meant to establish societal norms. It also looks at certain characteristics that can make children more vulnerable to bullying, why bullies behave as they do, and what cyber bullying is.
Being bullied is a form of trauma and something that can come back to haunt a victim even in adulthood. The Bullying Awareness Diploma Course looks at the effects bullying has on the victim, with the following topics covered: depression and anxiety, isolation, academic performance, sleep patterns and self-confidence. You’ll explore the environmental factors that can leave a child predisposed to bullying and how any abuses they suffer affect their emotional development. The course explains how adults can help a bullied child and recognise the common signs of bullying, and how to conduct an ACEs questionnaire to understand how likely it is a child may suffer additional trauma throughout their life.
Bullying doesn’t just impact the child but affects their caregivers - parents, teachers, childminders, day-care workers. This course explains how adults in these roles should respond to bullying, how they can improve the situation and just as importantly what not to do, how they should respond to a bully, and how to increase positive behaviour in the children in their care.
The effects of bullying – social, physical and mental, can last a lifetime if the original trauma is not healed with therapy. The Bullying Awareness Diploma Course explains how these effects can present themselves, how a child can be helped with the use of therapy and the tools they can be given to help themselves.
To fully understand bullying, it is important to understand both sides of the interaction. This course talks you through why children become bullies, the motivations and social and emotional ‘rewards’ a bully feels, and how bullying differs depending on gender.
For children who are being bullied, there are a number of strategies that they can use to combat or avoid being bullied. The Bullying Awareness Diploma Course guides you through these and explains how children can use a mindfulness practice to calm their minds, think rationally in stressful situations, and feel more empowered.
Witnessing bullying can also be stressful. A child may be unwilling to interject or come forward with information about bullying, or may even become part of the bullying, so as not to become a target themselves. The course discusses the negative effects on bystanders who do not support those who are bullied, the reasons they might not come forward and how they can be empowered to stand up to bullying.
The Bullying Awareness Diploma Course looks at how bullying is accepted in politics and the impact this has on children and how anti-bullying messages in fiction can teach children to empathise with victims of bullying and understand why it is wrong. You’ll also learn how ostracism can occur in childhood and the effects this can have on them as they move into adulthood.
