I will be going into schools across the region over the coming months to talk about bullying.

I won’t be talking to the children though. I will be talking to teachers letting them know about the effects bullying can have on a child’s mental health and what they should look out for.

As the schools are more or less all back open now, I thought I would share some of this information with you. If you put a group of 18-month-old babies together from all different backgrounds, they will generally play quite happily together.

There may be the odd squabble over toys etcetera but you won’t see any of them picking on each other or bullying each other because of any physical differences in their appearance. Nor will they generally leave one child out of a group. They have yet to learn prejudices.

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By the time children get to school, they have started to form their own personalities and begun to discover their likes and dislikes, feeling the need to fit in and belong. They also pick up very easily on things they hear at home and elsewhere, such as on tv. All of these can have a strong influence on their attitudes towards others.

Physical or verbal bullying are perhaps the ones that we pick up on most easily as adults if we see it or hear it. Perhaps less obvious, and more difficult to spot, is social bullying.

This can take many forms, such as a child being deliberately left out and made to feel excluded. It could be that one child who has influence, encourages others not to be friends with a particular child they have targeted.

In this age of social media, it is quite easy for a bully to spread rumours and start a hate campaign against a weaker or singled-out child.

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Very often, children who are subjected to social bullying will not report it. They feel ashamed or embarrassed to admit that they are not popular. They may be confused as to why they have been singled out, this can lead to a child becoming very lonely and withdrawn, their schoolwork can suffer, and their development can be seriously affected.

These influences from an early age and this type of exclusion from the group by others can stay with a child for life, it can leave mental scarring and lead to other problems.

As adults, we need to keep an eye out for the child who always seems to be on their own in the playground or sits away from others on the school bus. The one that seems to be sitting a few seats away from anyone else in the dining room.

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At home, if your child shies away from an out-of-school activity or perhaps gets angry or upset if you ask them about friends or things they have been doing, this is something you may need to think about.

We owe it to our children to look out for them, so with the new term starting, watch for any signs of change in behaviour and general attitude from how they were during the holidays, it may just be the first clue that something is not quite right at school.

Next week I will be writing about suicide and how it disproportionately affects men.

If you feel you are in a mental health crisis or emergency and may be in danger of causing harm to yourself or others then please contact your GP, the Samaritans on 116 123 or attend A&E.