Parents & Carers
- What is bullying?
- Signs of bullying
- How you can help your child
- Online Safety\Cyber Bullying
- Bully Log
- Changing Schools
- Teenagers
- My Child is a Bully
- Assertiveness for children
- ZAP Assertiveness Training
- Training for Parents and Professionals
- Anti-Bullying Policy
- Protecting Children from Paedophiles
Help us by completing our online Survey - see what others thought of Kidscape...
We'd welcome your feedback about our website. Email us and let us know what you think.
Copyright © Kidscape 2010
Reg Charity No. 326864
All rights reserved
2 Grosvenor Gardens
London SW1W 0DH
Assertiveness for Children
Notes by Enid MacNeill, Sheffield Deptartment of Educational Psychology,
adapted for Kidscape
Aims:
- to introduce children to cope with new ways of behaving which will give them strategies for coping with bullying
- to teach children to think differently about themselves by giving themselves praise and encouragement
Basic concepts:
Assertion theory is based on the premise that every individual possesses basic human rights:
- the right to be treated with respect
- the right to make mistakes and be responsible for them
- the right to refuse requests without having to feel guilty or selfish
- the right to ask for what you want (realising that the other person has the right to say 'no')
- the right to be listened to and to be taken seriously
- the right to say "I don't understand"
- the right to ask for information
There are three response styles:
- passive
- aggressive
- assertive
A passive response is to behave as if other people's rights matter more than theirs.
An aggressive response is to behave as if your rights matter than those of other people.
An assertive response is to respect themselves and others equally.
We may think that we have a basic personality type are "timid', "shy", "pushy" or "bossy". By using assertiveness skills we can work towards what we want rather than pushing others around or being a pushover. People will begin to respond to us differently too.
The thoughts we have about ourselves can help or hinder. Often we put
ourselves down saying "no one will like me", "I am hopeless
at this" etc. We can change this and say helpful things about ourselves
instead, like "I have the right to ask for what I want", "I
did OK", "It wasn't perfect but it was OK".
Download the full Assertiveness for Children leaflet or find out more about our ZAP courses
Follow Kidscape on
Do you worry too much about your child?
You wouldn't put up with this as an adult so why should they?
Watch a video showing how Kidscape can stop your child from being bullied
