[.ca] Your Child: Bully or Victim?: Understanding and Ending ... (ISBN 0743229231)

From Amazon.com:
Despite what many well-meaning adults advise, nothing fans a bully's fire brighter than a victim who tries to "just ignore it." Be it insults, punches, ostracism, or sexual labeling, such misplaced anger requires swift and smart intervention. In Your Child: Bully or Victim?, Peter Sheras examines bullying from many angles and provides thoughtful, practical advice for all parents of school-age children. The study begins with a hard look at childhood aggression. Sheras shows how bullying results from a child's inability to express anger in socially acceptable ways, and how this tendency escalates (and mutates) as the child grows older. When an explosive child connects with a weaker child--one who perhaps has been advised to run, hide, or fight back--the results are quite predictable. Sheras maintains that the parents' duty is not to ignore or belittle these situations, but to arm themselves--and their children--with the means to handle them confidently. Behavioral cues and physical clues that might signal a child's distress; talking points for discussing abuse with children; and guidelines for seeking help from school staff, counselors, and if necessary, legal advisors complete this useful addition to the family library. --Liane Emory Thomas

Essential for all parents:
Peter Sheras, a prominent psychotherapist and expert on youth and schools, has provided us with a practical, research-based, accessible guide to dealing with bullies and bullying. Parents and children will resonate with the vivid examples of the variety of situations in which children and adolescents experience bullying. These examples are so true-to-life that one case of parents seeking the support of other parents in addressing their child's victimization was identical to the experience of my friends. In this example (and with my friends), the parents of the witness refused to enlist their child's help in support of the victim. Peter Sheras offers practical and developmentally appropriate advice for the parents and educators of victims, bullies, and bystanders. I particularly liked the chapter on child empowerment, because it provides strategies for optimal child development that would help children cope with all of life's challenges, not just bullying. I would highly recommend this book to ALL parents and teachers. It is likely that the majority of children today will witness or experience tyranny or harassment and this book provides not only understanding of the situation but procedures to deal with it effectively.