Were you uninvited to a birthday party, laughed at by a group of mean girls, or maybe even bullied? If you had some tough times in elementary, middle, or high school, it’s easy to inadvertently be projecting your own experiences onto your child as they develop their own social group.

Last week’s Securely Attached episode was all about peer rejection in toddlerhood—how to make space for a dialogue, develop a growth mindset, and help your child build their compassion, empathy, and social awareness.

While the fundamentals are the same, peer rejection in elementary or pre-teen child years can be much more nuanced. So Dr. Emily Upshur of Upshur Bren Psychology Group is back to help parents of older kiddos learn how best to support them, when to step in, how much emotional scaffolding to provide, and some key indicators that it may be time to seek professional help.

Peer rejection in toddlerhood is a normal and healthy part of development. While it may take some work for us to calm our own fight or flight response so we can be open to this, it can be helpful to try to lean in and open up a dialogue with our children in these instances so that we may build their compassion, empathy and social awareness.

Joining me today is the co-founder of our practice, Upshur Bren Psychology Group, Dr. Emily Upshur. We’ll dive deep into many of the ways we can do this with our young children, offering you tools and thought provoking prompts—whether your child is the aggressor or the recipient—to help you and your child navigate peer rejection.