Conflict resolution
Tips- When your child gets angry, give them time and space to calm down before trying to resolve the situation. Explain later that it is difficult to think of good solutions when we are angry.
- Encourage your child to help other children to resolve conflicts or problems by listening to them, respecting them, finding solutions together and helping them to ask for help.
- Read more about bullying here.
- Teach your child the four steps of conflict resolution - understand the problem, think of possible solutions, choose the best solution, try it out.
- Use the four steps of conflict resolution in your family life.
| Activity 1 | Beating bullying |
| Aim | To improve your child's abilities to deal with situations involving bullying |
| How long will it take? | 15-30 minutes |
| What do I need? | Crayons and paper |
| What do I do? | Explain that bullying means threatening or hurting someone else or saying nasty things about them. Has your child experienced a situation like that? How did they feel? Explain that when we are bullied, we can ask for help from someone we trust. Ask your child to name and draw the people they would turn to if they were bullied. Make sure that they think of people who can help in different environments - teachers at school, a parent at home. Display the drawings. |
| Activity 2 | Do you see what I see? |
| Aim | To improve your child's abilities to resolve conflicts and deal with anger |
| How long will it take? | 30 minutes |
| What do I need? | Pen and paper |
| What do I do? | Explain to your child that it is difficult to find a good solution to a problem if we are angry or upset. So, we all need ways to calm down. Tell your child what to do to calm down or make yourself feel better. Ask your child if they have felt angry or very upset. What did they do to calm down or make themselves feel better? Encourage them to think fo other ideas. You can help with suggestions/ Make some of them fun and encourage your child to experiment - let them hit a pillow, run around a garden or park, shout, squeeze some playdough. You can join in too! Talk to your child after each activity and ask whether it would help them to calm down or feel better. Finally, ask them to draw the three activities they think are most helpful and then display them in your child's bedroom. |
| Activity 3 | Managing anger (This activity is also included in Module 1) |
| Aim | To improve your child's ability to ability to identify ways of coping with anger |
| How long will it take? | 10 minutes |
| What do I need? | Nothing |
| What do I do? | This activity needs to be done soon after your child has been angry - at bedtime that evening or the following day. Talk about the incident and ask why they were so angry. Ask how they coped with it and prompt them to think of other things they could have done - for example, talk to someone, take deep breaths, think about something nice. Remember: solutions must make your child feel better but not have negative consequences for other people. |
