Thank you for writing to Education.com with your question. It's no secret that moderate to severe bullying can be extremely demoralizing and often leaves emotional scars for life. You are doing the right thing by looking for solutions to this problem.

While it is sometimes difficult to control the situation it is important to counteract the bullying by highlighting your child's strengths and try to make him/her feel special. It is also important to help your child realize that he/she is not alone when it comes to being bullied.

Focus on teaching your child that bullies act the way they do due to no flaw or fault of your child.  Bullying is a reflection of the bully's very low self-esteem and low self-worth.  Bullies choose to take the cowardly route and pick on people to try and feel better about themselves.

In order to ensure his/her safety, encourage your child to try and stay near a good friend during the times when she is most likely to be bullied. Above all, practice different scenarios and the appropriate safe way when responding to the aggressor.

Help you child to maintain his/her own self-control rather than creating more conflict. Additionally, it might be a good idea to sign your child up for age appropriate martial arts classes or self defense classes. Not only would he/she learn valuable skills physically to defend himself/herself in the event that the need arose but in addition, martial arts builds self-esteem, overall personal awareness and self respect.

There are several books on the topic that you might find to be helpful.

"Taking the Bully by the Horns" by: Jay Carter, Kathy Noll, and Flora Cusimano is the children's version of the best selling book, "Nasty People" by Jay Carter, Kathy Noll, and Flora Cusimano.

"Stick Up for Yourself: Every Kid's Guide to Personal Power & Positive Self-Esteem" by Gershen Kaufman.

"How to Handle Bullies, Teasers and Other Meanies: A Book That Takes the Nuisance Out of Name Calling and Other Nonsense" by Kate Cohen-Posey.

"The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander: From Preschool to High School--How Parents and Teachers Can Help Break the Cycle" by Barbara Coloroso.

Please know that if you would like to talk about this further or you are looking for referrals for services in your local area, counselors at the Boys Town National Hotline are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can all the toll free Hotline at 1-800-448-3000.