The City of Helsinki says all of its daycare units are adopting a coherent approach to prevent and address bullying as the fall term begins.
While bullying among older kids often makes headlines, problems start early, as illustrated by a recent survey among parents and kids in the greater Helsinki region.
In the latest joint customer experience survey on early childhood education in the Helsinki metropolitan area, parents and guardians asked their children what they disliked about daycare. Fourteen percent of the children cited bullying as their least favorite aspect, and many also mentioned conflicts with other children.
When asked what bullying is, children aged 6–7 in a daycare centre in Helsinki had the following to say:
"Bullying is when you hit someone. And it doesn't feel nice, and then you have to tell an adult straight away."
"Saying something nasty or doing something to another child."
"Hurting someone."
"Not being included in playing.”
"Something that makes someone else feel bad."
Helsinki said its early childhood education staff will receive an introduction to the updated anti-bullying programme and support material for parent-teacher conferences. The city also noted that intervening in and preventing bullying is one of the key tasks of early childhood education.
Bullying can have a significant negative impact on children's mental health, and surveys among school children frequently report it as a problem.
Bullying emerged as a common experience in the recent Child Barometer survey conducted by the Ombudsman for Children. The study, based on more than 400 telephone interviews with pre-primary pupils nationwide, found that one percent of children reported being bullied continuously, while 56 percent said they were bullied occasionally. In addition, 17 percent of respondents said they do not always have a friend at pre-primary school.
Last year, a court in Päijät-Häme issued a school bully restraining order, a first in Finland.
