It's easy to find advice about what to do if a child is bullied. But what skills can be instilled in kids that will help prevent the behavior in the first place?
The following will help them handle relationships and social problems. With practice and reinforcement, these skills will easily become second nature.

Teaching Empathy
Kids who are able to put themselves in another’s position are less likely to bully others, period. These kids feel compassion and caring for others, and strive to be helpers rather than hurters.
Luckily, empathy can be learned. Kids need lots of opportunity to be put into situations where they can help. Recognizing that they have something to offer helps them feel good about themselves, which translates to feeling good about helping others. They also need exposure to those less fortunate than themselves, to help them learn compassion and a sense of perspective.

Teaching Communication Skills
Kids who know how to communicate effectively have some degree of inoculation against bullying. These kids know how to read body language and facial cues, which gives them critical information about social situations. They also know how to express themselves clearly, which may prevent them from getting caught up in rumor-spreading and gossip.
Good communication skills also give kids an edge in processing the nuances of social situations, and helps them adeptly maneuver through social rituals that can, for those who may be less verbally adept, be potentially disastrous. Understanding skills like letting people talk without interrupting, respecting different opinions, initiating conversations, and asking for help can go a long way towards helping kids fit in with their peer group.

Teaching Conflict Resolution Skills
Both bullies and their victims often have weak conflict resolution skills. Bullies handle conflict by becoming aggressive or intimidating, and victims often respond by running away or giving in. The reason? They don’t know how to work out the inevitable conflicts that kids have with each other.
Resolving conflicts includes knowing how to express one’s feelings, listening to the other person’s perspective, and trying to work out a solution everyone can agree with. Kids need lots of practice at this skill, and should be encouraged to practice these skills with adults as well as other kids. That’s one of the reasons why adults should always listen to a child’s perspective when there is a conflict: it teaches the child that everyone has a right to express their point of view and come to a conclusion that is agreeable to all.

Teaching Assertiveness Skills
Remember, aggressive and assertive are two different things. Kids who are assertive are able to work out conflicts with others through strategies such as compromise and cooperation. They are skilled at talking out problems and expressing their opinions so that others can understand them. However, they do all of this while respecting the other person and looking for a solution that meets both parties’ needs.

Teach kids that their rights are important; but so are the rights of others. Help them practice working out conflicts in ways that allow them to practice standing up for themselves, while also letting the other person have their say.

Teaching Self-Respect
Kids who respect themselves know that they deserve to be treated fairly. That includes being an expectation of both safety and respect. Kids who are treated badly believe that this is what they deserve, and will never develop the skills to stand up for themselves and demand something different.
Adults can help by making sure they always show respect for all kids, and that they model this in front of other students. Helping kids develop skills and abilities helps too; feeling valued and important help develop self-respect, too. Kids who have self-respect feel positive about themselves, and are less likely to need to bully others, or to tolerate being bullied.

Teaching empathy, communication skills, conflict resolution skills, assertiveness, and self-respect can help kids improve their social relationships and provide protection against becoming a bully or victim of bullying.



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