Bullying is one experience anyone doesn’t want to experience, whether it is at school, college or work, because it can make the victims feel bad. People with autism are one of the populations of people that are vulnerable to being targets of bullying because of their difficulties navigating the social world in which he/she may have a hard time recognizing & responding to bullying, struggle of his/her peers at understanding/empathizing with his/her behavioral differences, and inclusion of supports such as teaching assistants and shadow teachers that reduces the opportunities for social interaction & increase the social distance from his/her peers.
Victims of bullying are known for having difficulties with social understanding, low social status & perceived different & deviating from norms, and people within this spectrum ticks all the points that make them targets of bullies. People with autism have no obvious disability & look normal, which makes them more at risk of getting bullied. People with autism are more rejected, less popular, have fewer friends & more limited social networks than their neurotypical counterparts, which makes them more vulnerable to isolation & loneliness.
People within this spectrum are also 3x more likely to be maltreated than neurotypicals would, which causes stress & trauma. In terms of friendships, they also have lower centrality, acceptance, companionship & reciprocity, and perceived as someone different/alien by their peers due to their difficulties in understanding & conforming to social norms. Teasing & taunting, which is something that autistic people deal with regularly, are painful for them, because they don’t know how to handle them, have difficulties with taking another person’s perspective, which makes it hard to identify teasing & other forms of bullying such as name-calling, ignoring/leaving out, pushing, pulling, kicking, spreading rumors, and more.
Autistic people also have socially incongruent behaviors due to their poor understanding of social rules, and they also misinterpret non-literal languages such as jokes. Their social & behavioral difficulties also cause them to have high levels of anxiety & frustration from their difficulties with social understanding & sensory sensitivities, hence the fact that they tend to be marked as being someone odd or a freak, which translates to being targets of bullying. As a matter of fact, people within this spectrum like me want to be normal & fit in with others in order to avoid being bullied. Spotting bullying is hard already for them, and they don’t always realize when he/she gets bullied because of their difficulties with communication & understanding others’ intentions, in addition to difficulties figuring out if someone wants to be friendly/hostile to them.
The characteristics associated with ASD that makes people affected by this disorder targets for bullying include limited control over what’s happening around them have feelings of inadequacy, poor self-esteem, difficulty understanding others’ facial expression, tone of voice & body language, being socially isolated from his/her peers, appear depressed/self-destructive, inability to communicate certain thoughts/feelings that may accidentally offend his/her peers/classmates, inability to verbally defend themselves, problem-solving & relating bullying experiences in words, sensory & sensitivities & meltdowns, interest in uncommon special interests, inability to label & express feelings from themselves & others, social anxiety & awkward communication.
The signs that someone with autism includes unexplained bruises, cuts & scratches, come home with missing/damaged belongings/clothes, refusal to go to school, doing poorly at school, have nightmares, get angrier & more aggressive than usual, having mood swings, feeling anxious, stressed, depressed, & unhappy, doesn’t want to talk what’s wrong, reduced concentration & focus, increased obsessive/repetitive behavior & difficulties with sleep. Not only being targets of bullying, but some people with autism also bully someone else too because something doesn’t go the way he/she wants to, the frustration of being left out & desperation of getting friends, fitting in with others, following suggestions from his/her peers & unaware that he/she hurts others.
Being targets of bullying can lead someone with autism to have diminished social skills & relationships, problems with schoolwork, damaged self-esteem, difficulties with mental health (especially anxiety & depression), refusal to go to school, behavioral issues, reduced concentration, & refusal to be included in social situations. In addition, negative social outcomes for someone in this spectrum reduce the motivation for further interaction, which leads to avoidance & solitary behavior.
For his/her peers, reduced social contact with someone with autism limit the development of understanding & awareness for their condition, which leads to feelings of being different to each other. To deal with bullying, the person should talk/listen to his/her parents or someone else he/she trusts, discuss with school/work about the bullying case, teach him/her what bullying is as well as the strategies to get away from bullying, work on his/her social skills & ways to cope with bullying, and having supportive friends that can protect him/her from getting bullied.
In addition, interventions can help someone in the spectrum develop social skills & understanding, because it can improve his/her understanding of her social cues that prevent social vulnerability, bullying role play that teaches response strategies, identify the contexts he/she’s most vulnerable to bullying, & teaching social skills. Also, having teachers that are tolerant, accepting to them, encourage difference & individuality instead of conformity, having empathy, respect & liking of someone in this spectrum, overcoming stereotypes associated with autism, & willing to take time to understand his/her individual needs helps them as well. Appropriate school/work climate/culture that promote respect for diversity/difference also prevent bullying too.
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