I recently read through a study that looked at not only the prevalence of childhood bullying of adolescents on the autism spectrum but also the perception of bullying acts by the child on the spectrum. Yes, children on the autism spectrum, including those with Asperger’s Syndrome, do experience a higher rate of childhood bullying. However, there are also perception problems.
Children on the autism spectrum often have difficulty with Theory of Mind. This difficulty causes some children to misinterpret bullying acts as non-bullying in nature.
I recently wrote an article on the topic for Suite 101, here is an excerpt:
Although the study showed an increase in childhood bullying among those on the autism spectrum, the teachers reported a higher rate of bullying than the students did themselves. Children and adolescents on the autism spectrum as well as their typically developing peers are reporting a lower rate of bullying than their teachers.
Read the entire article: Children with Autism Face More Bullying.
