Help Your Kids Fight Against Bullies At School

The world is just like an improvised version of a fairy tale where antagonists co-exist with protagonists and the overall impact is not always affectionate. Bullying and harassment of students with special needs is a common phenomenon that often creates a hostile environment.

 

Supporting children with special needs is one of the significant concerns of academic institutions because the frequency of complaints against general students harassing specially-abled children is relatively high. It has been seen that kids with learning disabilities (LD) often become victims of such bullying when it comes to an inclusive classroom.

Courses on learning disabilities for teachers guide them to maintain the classroom decorum in an inclusive classroom. Besides, the special education teacher is also responsible for the behavioral assessment of special education needs. They take care of the social and emotional development of students with LD.

What is a Functional Behavioral Assessment?

Functional behavioral assessment (FBA) is being conducted by schools these days to a great extent. Behavior challenge is a major issue that students with learning disabilities often go through. FBA is an approach based on numerous strategies that help teachers to understand the root cause behind such behavioral challenges.

These days schools are assigning a special team for FBA. The team is led by a person trained in understanding behavior, like a school psychologist, a counselor, or a behavior specialist. The FBA team usually includes teachers (general and special education teachers), school staff, service providers, the student, and their families.
 

Now, FBA has. 4 basic steps based on which the team identifies why specific behaviors occur. Based on a specially-abled student’s behavior who is having LD, an Individualized Education Program (IEP) is framed. That plan increases a student’s ability to perform better and overcome all the challenges. FBA and IEP both are participating in or benefiting students with special abilities.

The 4 steps of FBA are:

• Defining and explaining the type of behavior a student is showing.
   
• Collecting resources and gathering information that shows when a student is behaving differently, and what exactly happens before and after portraying such a behavior.
   
• The next will be to analyze the prime behind that kind of behavior, ie., what is triggering the student to behave like that.
   
• Once all these steps are being solved, the FBA team goes for a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) for students.

FBA is not just associated with specially-abled students but it helps in addressing bullying as well. Since the main purpose of this strategic approach is to find out the reason behind any particular behavior it works the best to identify what exactly runs behind the back of a bully’s mind.

Things that parents can do when their kids are being bullied:

Talk to your child: Make sure that your child knows what bullying and ragging mean and encourage her/him to communicate with you about anything that happens. Kids are often being threatened by bullies and they do not share these with parents.  So you need to ask regularly about school and their interactions with others.

Be their support system: With parents beside them as a support system, children can fight back against bullying. Also, having a group of friends is also essential. Bullies often leave children alone who have a solid group of friends and supportive people. You should help your special kid to make friends at school by inviting children to your home. Also, provide opportunities to develop friendships by exposing your child to activities he or she enjoys.

Report all bullying and harassment: Do not hesitate to communicate to the school committee immediately if you find out your specially-abled child is being bullied. Ask for an appointment so that you can have a face-to-face conversation and provide written details of the incidents including the dates, times, places, and people involved.

Your child’s safety is of utmost priority: If your child is being physically harassed or has been threatened, make sure that the school is taking stern steps on an urgent basis. Your child’s safety should be your number one priority. You can definitely contact the local police if there has been an assault or if the school does not respond.

CBSE School Bullying Protection Law:

The rate of bullying in schools is skyrocketing. Hence, the CBSE guides all its affiliated schools to follow the following guidelines:

• Committee formation: A committee that deals with cases of bullying and ragging.
   
• Ragging In School: If any student is found ragging or bullying will be given a written warning and based on evidence, the school can also rusticate that particular student.
   
• School Notice Board: The school display board must have a notice hung on it that is warning students regarding bullying and raging. It must mention and practice taking strict actions if anyone is found ragging or bullying someone.

Safe Environments for Kids with Special abilities:

When a specially-abled child is being bullied, special considerations must be taken. Kids with gifts often have IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) that can be used in taking specific approaches for preventing and responding to bullying. These special plans can provide additional services if necessary. Civil rights laws protect specially-abled students against harassment and bullies.

Thus, parents and school authorities can always create a safe environment for kids and especially for the ones who are having special gifts. Monitoring CCTV cameras of the school 24/7 is of absolute necessity. This will help many specially-abled kids not to be victims of butting and harassment. Courses on learning disabilities for teachers have special education teachers to support children with special abilities so that any such grieving incident does not stay hidden.

To know more about courses in special needs education, call our toll-free number 1800-212-6400.
 

Written By : Ruchi Mehta