Bullying Month: Spot the Signs Your Child is Being Bullied

 
Communication is the key to spotting bullying. However, sometimes your child does not tell you they are being bullied, and you need to figure out some signs of abuse. Here are some of those signs.

1. Your child has few friends
Forming connections with people through friendships is an important, social part of school. If your child fails to make friends, and just seems like a social outcast, they could be being bullied. While there is not a set number of friends a child should have, it is important for each parent to see how sociable their child is. If the amount of friends your child associates themselves with suddenly drops, bullying could be the cause.

2.  Changes in Mood
Your child was always the active, high spirited, and joyful child. Suddenly their demeanor has completed changed--they are distort and have low confidence. What has happened? This can be a clear sign that your child is being bullied, and that bullying is affecting their mood. Distort or jumpy behaviour is connect to their constant state of alert and abuse. Also, Low confidence is connected to the child abused, specifically vocal abuse. Vocal abuse causes this feeling that a child’s opinion is useless, and that feeling of uselessness leads to low confidence.

3. Can’t Sleep and Stomach and Head Aches
    Bullying may take a physical toll on a child’s body. It can cause head and stomach aches and insomnia. This physical pain is terrible for a children’s physical health. Mentally, it is often used as an excuse for children to get out of going to school because they fear facing a bully.  Fear can also lead to poor school performance.

4. Unexplained Bruises and Cuts on their Body
Probably the most glaring and quintessential sign that your child is being bullied, is unexplained bruises and cuts on their body. Obviously this is a sign that someone is most likely hurting your child. Often a response to this abuse is denial, and child might say it was an accident. It very well could be, but if these bruises and cuts continue to appear, it is time to take action.

How do you spot these bruises and cuts? For younger children, you can look during baths or when they getting changed. For older children and teenagers, you can look for places on their skin not covered in clothes. Sadly, it is much harder to spot bruises and cuts on older children and teenagers.

It goes without saying that this list does not cover every sign that your child is being bullied. However, it does cover many of the common indications of bullying. If your child is experiencing any of these signs, I ask you take action. In two weeks I’ll talk about ways to take action. 

Until Next Time,
David

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