Having friends who are on our side can make us feel better. So telling a friend can be a helpful thing to do. When we have a problem we often feel as though there is nothing that can be done. Friends can support us and also help us to think of other ways of handling things.
Children - What if I am being teased about stammering?

Call a hotline
If you want to speak to someone who doesn抰 know you, but who has been trained to help, you could call a helpline like the Michael Palin Centre (020 3316 8100), the British Stammering Association (020 8880 6590), Childline (0800 1111) or the National Bullying Helpline (0845 22 55 787).
Ask them to stop
Letting the person know how we feel about what they are doing can make us feel better as we are standing up for ourselves. 揑 don抰 like it when you do that� or 揟hat抯 mean�, or 揝top saying that�. Bullies usually pick on others to make themselves feel powerful. When we stand up to them, they are no longer in charge and they won抰 be getting the reaction they were hoping for.
Walk away
Just walking off without saying or doing anything shows the bully that they cannot get to us, and that makes it bit pointless from them trying to tease or bully us.
Tell the mother of the person who is teasing you
It may be that the other child抯 parents will sort it out by telling the bully to stop, explaining to them why it抯 wrong to tease.
Ignore them
Like walking away, this will take the bully抯 power away and if they don抰 get a response from us, they might just stop.
Make an excuse and leave the situation
We can make something up like 揑抳e just remembered I抳e got to厰 and make a quick getaway.
Tell your mum and dad
Sometimes we worry about telling our parents but they can be good listeners and they may have some good ideas about what to do. They may want to talk to the school about it or they may help us to figure out the best way to handle it. Most of us feel better when we have told someone else about something that抯 bothering us.
Tell your teacher
It抯 usually better if adults � parents and teachers - know what is going on because something can usually be done. Schools have anti-bullying policies, which means that they have promised not to allow bullying to happen. So telling our teachers can help to sort the problem out.
Write down your thoughts and put in a school "problem box"
If telling someone feels too hard, we can always write a note about it. If the school has a 慞roblem box� we can use that, or just give the note to an adult.
Tease back
We can show the bully that they are not more powerful than us by pointing out something about them. This can be tricky as it might turn into something more aggressive and everyone can end up getting into trouble. Behaving the same way as the bully makes us bullies too, so maybe this idea wouldn抰 work very well.
Cry
Depending on who the bully is, some of them might like it if we cry and show they have hurt our feelings. Have a cry, it can make us feel better, but maybe with a friend or parent.
Avoid them
Keeping out of their way might sound like a good idea, but it抯 a shame if that means we don抰 join in the football or whatever it is we want to do, just because they might be there.
Talk to someone else
It doesn抰 really matter who we talk to � a friend, a parent, a teacher, a brother or sister � it抯 just a good idea not to keep this to ourselves as we will usually feel worse about it and we won抰 have anyone to help us decide what to do.
Stick with your friends
Some bullies are more likely to stop if we have other people around us, rather than picking on us when we抮e on our own. So being with friends during breaks take away the opportunities for teasing and bullying.
Agree with them
This one sounds strange, doesn抰 it! But we have tried it out and it can be really powerful. When someone says 揧ou抳e got a stammer�, we can say 揧es I have�. There抯 not much more that they can say at that point. We have agreed with them but also shown that they aren抰 hurting us, and chances are, they will stop. We like to practise doing this with each other in a role play, just so that we know how to do it. Maybe you could practise at home with someone.
