Mumsnet Talk

DD's special need is not being able to cope with playground teasing. She is 10, will be 11 next month. She has always been sociable but, perhaps because she's a virtual only child (older siblings grown up by the time she was born), has great difficulty coping in a crowd. Perhaps this makes her a little possessive of her best friend.

She's also 'different', in the sense that she's surrounded by girly girls but is more the active, sporty kind herself. She's a scout where all the others are girl guides, and so forth. She thinks the girls in her class fuss about trivia.

The present problem is that a boy who is about eighteen months younger than her is teasing her at school and it's getting her down. I'm very good friends with his mum and he's fundamentally a nice kid but, if what DD tells me is true, has found her weak spot and is getting at her in the way, perhaps that a younger sibling might.

I don't know what to do.