Bullying is an undesirable, aggressive behavior of pre-school and school-aged children towards their peers. According to Stop Bullying (2021), for the behavior to be considered bullying, apart from being aggressive, it must include two things: a power imbalance and repetition. A power imbalance manifests itself in bullies using their power – which can be physical strength, popularity, or knowledge of humiliating information – to control/harm other kids. Repetition means that bullying occurs more than once or has the potential to occur more than once.
When it comes to pre-school-aged children, their understanding of the concept of bullying and experiences with it are very different from these of school-aged children in a number of ways. As per Miniland Educational (n.d.), first of all, they think of bullying as another child merely being ‘mean’ or ‘cruel’. Preschoolers are incapable of understanding what a power imbalance is and can barely grasp the notions of ‘intention’ and ‘motivation’. Secondly, it is difficult to measure the extent of bullying with preschoolers: since they cannot communicate as easily as their older peers, bullying can continue undiscovered for several years. Finally, it has been estimated that younger children are at the highest risk of being bullied. Those between the ages of 2 to 5 are particularly vulnerable due to their lack of self-confidence and ability to understand emotions.
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In pre-school, it is the role of teachers to evaluate interactions within groups and identify children with special socio-emotional needs and difficulties. Miniland Educational (n.d.) provides five tips for pre-school bullying prevention, the first of which is to give opportunities for children to show kindness and respect. There should always be toys and games to encourage them to demonstrate compassion and care. Secondly, positive behavior should be discussed and modeled: students are to be able to better communicate and express their emotions, leading to positive behavior and interaction. In addition to that, teachers, as classroom leaders, are to offer praise to encourage children’s positive behavior towards their peers. Moreover, a teacher is to explain how painful one’s bad behavior towards someone else can be. Finally, children need help in distinguishing friendly teasing from bullying. While it might be particularly difficult to convey to pre-schoolers, the easiest way to do it is to teach them to ask themselves whether there are cruel intentions involved.