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Many issues arise when children are young, but more so when they attain late childhood. These late childhood years take place between ages six through eleven. Many of the issues that are of major concern are bullying and emotions, along with personal academic obligations to get perfect grades on everything. These children may be troubled if they make a mistake on their work. He/she will start to believe that they are not as good as their peer students around them. More than ever, the late childhood years are when your children need you most. Opportunity for involvement and even reading this letter is a good first step to becoming in tune with your child and the way they are experiencing the world. Below are mini ‘interviews’ with children and ideas as well as information for our two issues in our April newsletter. Fitting in and making friendships is an enormous priority for children in late childhood and if it is not being successfully fulfilled, these children can become distressed. If the reason their social acceptance is not satisfied is because of teasing or bullying, they can revert to younger age behaviors very quickly. It has been known that in the country of Canada, that every 7 minutes, a child is bullied on the playground. It is also known that other kids (not the victim) are watching it happen to the other child 85% of the time. As scary as the facts are, at least you can know that other children can say that they, too, saw him/her getting bullied. There are many theories on why children tease aggressively, or bully. One of the likely motives is attention whether it be because they like the attention or because negative attention is better than no attention at all. This can also be a sign that the child needs more attention or more praises for doing kind things, instead relying on negative attention. Children who feel bad about themselves are who are feeling smaller than everyone else feel that they need to look bigger than others in order to feel like they can overcome their problems. Being misinformed about children with differences or disabilities can lead to teasing because of weird things the victim might be doing. Talking to your kids about children with disabilities and respect can make a huge difference. Also, getting your kids around special needs kids (low-high funcitoning) can help them to be familiar when they see a special needs child. Believe it or not, kids like to share things they know with their friends and other people. Another possible incentive that “bullies” can have is one that most people would not really think of: Media. Television programs are having more and more teasing or fights. Sometimes the cartoons they are watching on T.V. are trying to show why bullying is not good, but some children can interpret them opposite of what the producer was trying to show. Fighting in the home or teasing from siblings can cause children to feel like being mean is just second nature. They are used to it being their way of life. As parents, there are things that you can watch for in your children that would illustrate some type of isolation problem. These could include loss of appetite, change in mood, “fake” smiles, saying they are sick, missing/late assignments, lunch tickets or other things out of place or missing, not wanting to go to school, wetting the bed, acting scared, and grooming carelessness. There can be other signs, but it does depend on your child’s personality, and only you know them best. Talking to your children about how to tell you are an adult if they are bullied or threatened needs to be more than a one-time conversation. Kids at this age are vulnerable and scared, so they need to be reassured that nothing bad will happen to them, no matter what the bully says. Setting up role models and situations to show children what they should/should not do is an important part to stopping this cycle of bullying. As a parent, if your child is being bullied, go strait to the principal and take care of it right away: It is unacceptable and it is the job of the faculty of the school to put an end to it immediately. If there is “fun!” teasing in the home, make sure that you let your children know that not every one will like that kind of teasing and may take it wrong. You, the parent, can make your child’s education experience a bright and happy one!