Teaching the Child with Leukemia to Cope with Teasing

Abstract

This paper describes a training program for teaching children with leukemia to handle ridicule, derogation, and harassment in the form of teasing by peers. It first outlines the basic principles of teasing interactions, then describes the nonverbal behaviors that the teased child must not/must exhibit and the verbal strategies that he must learn to use. The procedures for teaching these new responses are provided in sufficient detail that the interested adult could adapt the program to the teasing problems of a specific child. The paper concludes with a discussion of the strong positive impact the program has on the self-confidence of children who are now able to cope with what previously had been, for them, an insurmountable problem.