Well this one's a tough one! It gets greater and greater as time goes on and dealing with it gets harder and harder.

Dealing with bullying can be extremely difficult when the Authority figure (school teacher, friends parents, sporting coaches) refuse to see it as an issue.

After swimming with the school one day my son came home in his bathers, he had arrived back to the school at lunch time and spent the rest of the day at school in his bathers and school shoes before coming home. When I answered the door I said "whooo, aren't you spunky" assuming this is how he wanted to be dressed. Concerns were already running through my head. Then he started crying, saying 'mummy its not funny'. It seemed somebody had stolen his unform at the pool and instead of the teachers doing a bag check to find it, they put him on the bus back to school like this. Whats worse the failed to call me, but let him be at school for the rest of the day like this. Needless to say I was beside myself with anger. When I called the school I hung up in shock after being told there was nothing they could do. After spending the night in confusion turned anger I was ready the next day to face a bull head on.

I went straight to the Principal, forget the teachers, and I stood my ground. I made them responsible for the maltreatment of my son the previous day. I gave them the ultimatum.... They were to provide my son with a brand new uniform, they were to address the swimming class in the effects of stealing AND they were to do a compulsory bag check before returning to school after excursion OR I will contact the education department, the police and the papers about their neglect of the whole issue.  My son got his brand new uniform, not only was the swimming class addressed they spent the whole next swimming lesson back in school discussing the issue. This got some of the other kids in the class pretty angry and they dobbed in the thief! Due to the privacy laws their bags were not allowed to be checked, however, now their bags do not go on excursion, only the necessities in a clear plastic bag with their name on it.

This was not the first, nor the last time my son was bullied, however, I did learn something from it all. You have to advocate for your children where necessary, and you need to make the carer (school teacher, etc) at that time responsible.

Another method that seemed to work was explaining to my child that most bullies will pick on someone because it makes them feel better about themselves. My son set about becoming friends with one bully that picked on him for silly things. He now talks to my son when he is feeling low instead of picking on him and they walked to school together. Ignorance is a great reaction, wherever possible ignore the bully, with no reaction they soon become bored. This is a hard one for younger kids though. 

We also looked closely at the main things he could get bullied over - his autism, for one - and thought funny but less derogitive replies. eg 'Whats wrong? Didn't your mummy kiss you goodbye this morning' - this comeback, along with others, had kids laughing and the bully embarrassed, sometimes even laughing himself and thinking twice before bullying my son again.  

My son is now quite a confident  12year old (going on 30, like most kids), deals with bullying most times on his own in a more placid way and he doesn't let it bring him down. These days he is bullied a lot less, this may have to do with the fact he is a little older, however, I do think it has a lot to do with methods applied.