Bullying And Victimization Essay
Bullying is an issue that is too common in schools across the United States. Kids of all ages, races, gender, and sexual orientation fall vulnerable to those that overpower them and sometimes, the consequences can be deadly. Students who are normally developing and get bullied are the majority of stories to get televised, while kids who have an autism spectrum disorder fall through the cracks, despite having a higher risk of being bullied due to their differences and lack of social skills. Children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) will more likely to be bullied due to their low theory of mind (ToM) and their inability to be taught through the social cognitive theory to help prevent them from falling into victimization of their normally
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developing peers.
In “Why Autistic Kids Make Easy Targets for School Bullies,” by Maia Szalavitz, discusses a study’s findings in children with autism spectrum disorders are bullied five times as often as their normal peers. However, parents and teachers think the rates are higher. Szalavitz explained children with ASD have difficulty picking up on social cues, make them a target for bullying. Children with higher functioning of ASD were more likely to be bullied because the physical characteristics of their disability are not displayed as vigorously and their social handicaps are more obvious and make it harder for peers to notice. Children with ASD who were higher in functioning were three times more likely to be bullied. Parents of autistic children think bullying may be a lot higher and the rates of being a bully are lower because those kids have difficulties with communication and being able to comprehend social contexts. Since most children with autism cannot recognize they are being bullied and an understanding of how to harass others from social information, they cannot report accurately. Research shows anti-bullying programs are the best when they are comprehensive and involve all students, not just individuals; along with social integration in classrooms of kids with autism into peer groups. This enhances the empathy and social skills of peers.
In the peer-reviewed journal, “Bully among Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Prevalence and Perception,” (van Roekel, Scholte, and Didden, 2010) examined similar incidences as in the Time article.
Their study looked at bullying and victimization in teens with ASD, if they could tell between bullying and victimization, and whether their Theory of Mind and bullying were related. They collected data from 230 teenagers with ASD who attended special education schools. The teenagers had to rate on a 5-point Likert scale fitted by two descriptions of bullying and victimization, and the teenagers had to answer “bullies other children,” and “is victimized” rating from “never” “to several times a week.” The teachers also filled out the same questionnaire as the peer ratings, but rating every child in the class. Participants also had to do a self-rating on bullying and victimization. Lastly, they measured the ability to recognize bullying by having the participants watch 14 videos, containing three different types of bullying: physical, verbal, and relational. In the results, they found the rates of bullying and victimization between 6-46%, and teachers reporting of bullying and victimization than peers. Teenagers who scored higher on the teacher and self-report of victimization were also more likely to misinterpret non-bullying situations as bullying. If adolescents bullied more, according to their teachers and peers, and the less developed their Theory of Minds were, they were more likely to misinterpret bullying situations as
non-bullying.
In the Washington Post, “Study shows almost half of children with autism victimized by bullies,” by Mari-Jane Williams, displays similar information as the Time.com article, showing kids with ASD are four times more likely to be bullied because they struggle with social interactions and language. Paul Sterzing, a professor at UC-Berkeley, had a study of 900 kids in which 10.6% of normally developing children had been bullied, and 46% of children with ASD in the same group had been bullied. These numbers were highest in grades 5th-8th. In the article, Sterzing talks about multiple solutions to combat this challenge such has modeling behavior while kids with ASD are being mainstreamed into classrooms and to educate peers and teachers about autism to develop empathy and understanding. He also talks about the need to have a stronger connection between teachers, staff, and parents. Parents also need to be monitoring their child’s changes in behavior, if any, and to be in communication with their teacher to see what is not only going on academically, but socially.
In the articles, all have shown aspects of conducting studies or gave examples which displayed the social cognitive theory. This theory, often used in the education field declares certain areas of what an individual can learn can be done so by observing others with interactions, social media, and experiences. Students who have ASD could have difficulties learning this way since they often have a hard time picking up social cues and it is the one thing which is most intensely worked on in therapy. Since this is the one aspect of life these individuals struggle with, it is only acceptable to try and teach them social mannerisms in a theory that does so, which all of these articles and studies display. One general principle of the social cognitive theory is each of the readings examines is learning by observing. For example, in the Time.com article, Eileen Riley-Hall, author of Parenting Girls on the Autism Spectrum Disorder, discusses an incident of her daughter who was observing boys in her classroom saying dirty words, she intimidating them like kids with ASD do, started saying these exact words. She had learned how to say these not by her own doing, but by seeing other kids talk in this fashion. Within that short time frame, she had learned whatever words they were saying and they had stuck with her. A unique way of learning by observing was presented in the “Bullying among Adolescents” study was through videos. In this study, the experimenters had the students watch 14 fragments of videos, 8 containing bullying situations and 6 with non-bullying and the students had to determine what kind of bullying the video fragment was displaying. Based upon what the students had learned previously through observation, either being bullied or being a bully themselves, affected their learning outcomes by watching the video. Therefore, the students who were bullied perceived non-bullying situations as bullying, and those who bullied perceived bullying situations as non-bullying. By watching the video fragments, the experimenters could determine what they had already learned about bullying based off of what the students had observed in their daily lives. Similarly, the Washington Post article talks about a study that showed half of children with autism are victimized by bullies discusses this concept. Paul Sterzing, an assistant professor at UC-Berkeley, discusses the idea of having kids with autism being integrated into a classroom so they can learn behavioral and social mannerisms, by observing their other peers. With already intensive therapy to improve their social skills, seeing other peers model these same behaviors can reinforce how to interact with others, and can slowly decrease the rates. Another major general principle one of the articles strongly demonstrated was learning does not always lead to change. In the study, this could not have rung more true. At the end of the study, if change had occurred, the students would have correctly guessed each instances of bullying and non- bullying. However, they did not. As mentioned earlier, those kids who were bullied misinterpreted non-bullying situations as bullying and the students who bullied perceived the opposite. This demonstrates the students did not grasp each instance in the videos, and learning had not occurred. This may have been due from those who are victimized and are the bullies may experience negative situations often; therefore they execute those experiences into the videos they watched. If they were to watch those videos multiple times, since it takes those children longer, and be taught what is bullying and what is not, both in therapy and in the environment, the experimenter’s may have seen learning occur. The Time.com article also slightly displayed this principle. As mentioning the earlier instance of Riley-Hall’s daughter, perceiving the dirty words as a good thing, demonstrates learning does not always lead to change. After that instance, she had not retained those words, so learning did not occur.
Theory of Mind is the ability of people to attribute mental states such as beliefs, intents, desires, pretend play, sarcasm, and knowledge to themselves and others, ultimately understanding others have mental states different from their own. They for normally developing children and adults, this is a very easy task, and it allows us to converse in social situations correctly. However, for children with ASD, they are unable to do this, therefore are unable to have normal reciprocal social interaction with their peers. Due to their underdeveloped theory of mind, their social skills become their greatest struggle, which makes them a target for bullying because they cannot converse with other peers and pick up on their social cues correctly. For example, in the main study, the experimenter’s had the students listen to stories about everyday situations where people say things they actually do not mean, which represent different aspects of theory of mind, such as sarcasm, lying, and pretend. Then, they had to answer two questions, a comprehension and justification, and the answers were judged on 0 to 3. 0, being incorrect and three being fully correct. The average theory of mind tasks was 14.60, which shows the mean level of bullying was rated higher by teachers than peers and selves. This shows kids with ASD have a lower set of ToM, hence their lower scores. Their teachers, who are normally developed, have a higher score when they had to rate their students, which shows they can identify when the students are being bullied or are bullying others. If students with ASD did have a higher ToM score, this would indicate they would be able to pick out bullying situations based on others’ actions and words and their scores would be higher because they could show they can comprehend and justify what was being said in the experiment. Another example of how children with ASD have a lower ToM is from the Time.com article. In the article, Riley-Hall describes an incident of her autistic daughter was being coerced into saying dirty words by boys in her classroom. While she thought this was a good thing, and being nice, the boys were actually making fun of her. This shows her daughter has an underdeveloped ToM because she could not pick up on their mindset and goal, which was making fun of her. If she were to have a higher ToM, she would not have gone saying those bad words and would have known the boys were making fun of her and she could have prevented bullying. Since kids who have ASD have a low ToM cannot pick up on these cues, they let the bullying continue, not because they like it, but because they do not recognize it as such. They either recognize it as a good thing, such as Riley-Hall’s daughter did, or it does not register to them and they ignore it.
In, “Why Autistic Kids Make Easy Target for School Bullies,” has strengths and weaknesses. It also gives valuable information on informing the public about learning and development, and how information can be used in an everyday setting. One of the strengths is it not only explains what the current problem facing bullying is, but it also gives new solutions, such as comprehensive anti-bullying programs and involve the whole school instead of the traditional way of targeting the bully and the victim. The authors of the study also suggest having inclusive classroom and having teenagers with ASD be integrated with protective peer groups. In this case, the teenagers with ASD would benefit from being in a more social environment, practicing their skills and the normal developing teenagers would develop understanding and empathy and their own social skills in working with teenagers with developmental disabilities. It helps their peers understand the disorder and its attributes more which previously were targets for the bullying. A weakness of the article is it does not go into much detail of what ASD is, what causes it, or the characteristics of it. It would have been beneficial to display since many readers only have a vague sense of what it is and the characteristics behind it. If ASD would have been talked about in more detail, it would have given the reader a better sense of why these kids are being bullied, and giving an awareness of the characteristics of ASD as to not make the same mistakes as others make who do bully. The article is important in it brings bullying to the public spotlight. All U.S. citizens know bullying a huge issue facing our typically developing children, but children with disabilities often fly under the radar. It also shows bullying amongst kids with ASD is in fact more prevalent. In terms of informing of learning and development, it shows the lack of learning about disabilities in schools. The article sheds light on ways to conquer this feat in the classroom, such as having a socially centered classroom. We can use the information by having educational systems fulfill these suggestions mentioned above, such as inclusive classes, anti-bullying programs, and peer support groups, into all schools systems. Kids as well as adults can understand those who are different and create a cohesive environment. With this environment, students with ASD will be able to learn to their fullest potential, as to not have to worry about being bullied or become distressed. Typically developing adults and children will be able to be more empathetic and develop awareness to those students and learn they deserve the same respect.
In the peer-reviewed study, “Bullying among Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Prevalence and Perception,” has strengths and weakness, as well. It also gives valuable information on informing the public about learning and development, and how the information can be used in an everyday setting. . Similar to the Time.com article, it had studied bullying and victimization in teenagers who have ASD in a special education school, which has not been studied thoroughly. It also used three different measurements such as, peer-ratings, teacher ratings, and self-ratings to gather data from, which were also unique. The authors had also used perception of bullying by having students watch videos of bullying and non-bullying examples, instead of using pictures. In light of weaknesses, the study had found the level of bullying and victimization were predictors of false negatives and positives. Therefore, the study was correlational, and no actual conclusions could be made. Secondly, there was an unequal gender ratio, boys being the majority since they are more likely to be diagnosed with ASD and the girls were not able to be studied because of a small group. This could have skewed data since boys tend to be more forward when bullying and girls tend to be more verbal, which kids with ASD have a hard time with. Therefore, girls would not likely to display aspects of bullying. In general, there was also a small sample size of students. Given more students or using more special education schools, the study could have looked at girls and boys, and had equal ratios, including the control group, which was also smaller than the independent group. This study has a lot to contribute to knowledge in learning and development. Its most profound one was showing the more teenagers were bullies or being bullied, they were more likely to either mistake non-bully situations as bullying and vice-versa. It has direct linking to an underdeveloped Theory of Mind, which assist in picking up on social cues. This information can be used similarly to the first article in the use of interventions in classrooms and school districts. These must be concentrated on reducing bullying among these teenagers and focusing on how they see bullying, being a victim, along with non-bullying scenarios, and being able to recognize correct instances of each.
In the third article from the Washington Post, has its strengths and weaknesses. One strength of the article gives light to kids with ASD who are higher functioning, such as those with Asperger’s, are put to the side when it comes to classroom inclusion, since the school does not have the time or money to address all of their issues since they are looking at working with kids who are lower functioning. The article recognizes these children also suffer from ASD and should be given the same inclusion and protection as those kids with ASD who are lower in functioning. The second strength of this article is it really emphasizes the importance of teacher to parent communication. It discusses success for conquering bullying does not only depend upon classroom inclusion and teacher observation, but parental observation, such as monitoring a child’s behavioral changes at home, and then working with the teacher to see what is going on in the classroom academically and socially. By working together, bullying can be combatable since the teacher will be able to observe carefully and take necessary actions, maybe talking with the children about what autism is and how kids who have this disorder deserve the same respect. A weakness of this article, though, is it gives the same suggestions of problem-solving as most other articles I have come across. Perhaps these repeat solutions have not worked for some classrooms. It would have been good to have seen alternative ways to conquer this problem. The importance of this article is to bring awareness to this topic. Bullying has always been an issue, but kids with disabilities are more at risk because they cannot defend themselves. This article can allow teachers, peers, and parents to be their voice. In terms of informing of learning and development, it displays the lack of awareness of those with disabilities in the classroom but it also gives reasoning and awareness as to why kids with ASD are more at risk by basing reasons off of their lack of interaction. This information can be used to bring awareness to the classroom, such as having a day where classes learn about these disabilities and teach kids to have empathy and give them an understanding of how kids with disabilities are not different and to treat them with respect. This could also be used to help kids with ASD in therapy. Therapists could work on helping kids identify what bullying is and tasks they could do to stop it, such as walking away, saying no, or going up to a teacher. This would take intervention and time, but it would still help so kids with ASD can have better social skills and prevent themselves from being a victim.
Bullying is too common in schools throughout the United States. Kids of any age, race, gender, or sexual orientation are tormented due to their differences. Those with ASD are often the ones to slip through the cracks, despite being bullied four times more than their peers. Kids with ASD often fall vulnerable due to their lack of social cognitive abilities and their low theory of mind. Through therapy and practice with identifying bullying situations, a kid with ASD could one day be able to stand up for themselves, and that would be the start of something great.
References
Roekel, E. V., Scholte, R. H., & Didden, R. (2010). Bullying Among Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Prevalence and Perception. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. doi:10.1007/s10803-009-0832-2
Szalavitz, M. (2012, September 5). Why Autistic Kids Make Easy Targets for School Bullies | TIME.com. Retrieved from http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/05/why-autistic-kids-make-easy-targets-for-school-bullies/#&SM_LENGTH=8
Williams, M. (2012, September 19). Study shows almost half of children with autism victimized by bullies - On Parenting - The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-parenting/post/study-shows-almost-half-of-children-with-autism-victimized-by-bullies/2012/09/18/b98f93a2-fc32-11e1-b153-218509a954e1_blog.html
developing peers.
In “Why Autistic Kids Make Easy Targets for School Bullies,” by Maia Szalavitz, discusses a study’s findings in children with autism spectrum disorders are bullied five times as often as their normal peers. However, parents and teachers think the rates are higher. Szalavitz explained children with ASD have difficulty picking up on social cues, make them a target for bullying. Children with higher functioning of ASD were more likely to be bullied because the physical characteristics of their disability are not displayed as vigorously and their social handicaps are more obvious and make it harder for peers to notice. Children with ASD who were higher in functioning were three times more likely to be bullied. Parents of autistic children think bullying may be a lot higher and the rates of being a bully are lower because those kids have difficulties with communication and being able to comprehend social contexts. Since most children with autism cannot recognize they are being bullied and an understanding of how to harass others from social information, they cannot report accurately. Research shows anti-bullying programs are the best when they are comprehensive and involve all students, not just individuals; along with social integration in classrooms of kids with autism into peer groups. This enhances the empathy and social skills of peers.
In the peer-reviewed journal, “Bully among Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Prevalence and Perception,” (van Roekel, Scholte, and Didden, 2010) examined similar incidences as in the Time article.
Their study looked at bullying and victimization in teens with ASD, if they could tell between bullying and victimization, and whether their Theory of Mind and bullying were related. They collected data from 230 teenagers with ASD who attended special education schools. The teenagers had to rate on a 5-point Likert scale fitted by two descriptions of bullying and victimization, and the teenagers had to answer “bullies other children,” and “is victimized” rating from “never” “to several times a week.” The teachers also filled out the same questionnaire as the peer ratings, but rating every child in the class. Participants also had to do a self-rating on bullying and victimization. Lastly, they measured the ability to recognize bullying by having the participants watch 14 videos, containing three different types of bullying: physical, verbal, and relational. In the results, they found the rates of bullying and victimization between 6-46%, and teachers reporting of bullying and victimization than peers. Teenagers who scored higher on the teacher and self-report of victimization were also more likely to misinterpret non-bullying situations as bullying. If adolescents bullied more, according to their teachers and peers, and the less developed their Theory of Minds were, they were more likely to misinterpret bullying situations as
non-bullying.
In the Washington Post, “Study shows almost half of children with autism victimized by bullies,” by Mari-Jane Williams, displays similar information as the Time.com article, showing kids with ASD are four times more likely to be bullied because they struggle with social interactions and language. Paul Sterzing, a professor at UC-Berkeley, had a study of 900 kids in which 10.6% of normally developing children had been bullied, and 46% of children with ASD in the same group had been bullied. These numbers were highest in grades 5th-8th. In the article, Sterzing talks about multiple solutions to combat this challenge such has modeling behavior while kids with ASD are being mainstreamed into classrooms and to educate peers and teachers about autism to develop empathy and understanding. He also talks about the need to have a stronger connection between teachers, staff, and parents. Parents also need to be monitoring their child’s changes in behavior, if any, and to be in communication with their teacher to see what is not only going on academically, but socially.
In the articles, all have shown aspects of conducting studies or gave examples which displayed the social cognitive theory. This theory, often used in the education field declares certain areas of what an individual can learn can be done so by observing others with interactions, social media, and experiences. Students who have ASD could have difficulties learning this way since they often have a hard time picking up social cues and it is the one thing which is most intensely worked on in therapy. Since this is the one aspect of life these individuals struggle with, it is only acceptable to try and teach them social mannerisms in a theory that does so, which all of these articles and studies display. One general principle of the social cognitive theory is each of the readings examines is learning by observing. For example, in the Time.com article, Eileen Riley-Hall, author of Parenting Girls on the Autism Spectrum Disorder, discusses an incident of her daughter who was observing boys in her classroom saying dirty words, she intimidating them like kids with ASD do, started saying these exact words. She had learned how to say these not by her own doing, but by seeing other kids talk in this fashion. Within that short time frame, she had learned whatever words they were saying and they had stuck with her. A unique way of learning by observing was presented in the “Bullying among Adolescents” study was through videos. In this study, the experimenters had the students watch 14 fragments of videos, 8 containing bullying situations and 6 with non-bullying and the students had to determine what kind of bullying the video fragment was displaying. Based upon what the students had learned previously through observation, either being bullied or being a bully themselves, affected their learning outcomes by watching the video. Therefore, the students who were bullied perceived non-bullying situations as bullying, and those who bullied perceived bullying situations as non-bullying. By watching the video fragments, the experimenters could determine what they had already learned about bullying based off of what the students had observed in their daily lives. Similarly, the Washington Post article talks about a study that showed half of children with autism are victimized by bullies discusses this concept. Paul Sterzing, an assistant professor at UC-Berkeley, discusses the idea of having kids with autism being integrated into a classroom so they can learn behavioral and social mannerisms, by observing their other peers. With already intensive therapy to improve their social skills, seeing other peers model these same behaviors can reinforce how to interact with others, and can slowly decrease the rates. Another major general principle one of the articles strongly demonstrated was learning does not always lead to change. In the study, this could not have rung more true. At the end of the study, if change had occurred, the students would have correctly guessed each instances of bullying and non- bullying. However, they did not. As mentioned earlier, those kids who were bullied misinterpreted non-bullying situations as bullying and the students who bullied perceived the opposite. This demonstrates the students did not grasp each instance in the videos, and learning had not occurred. This may have been due from those who are victimized and are the bullies may experience negative situations often; therefore they execute those experiences into the videos they watched. If they were to watch those videos multiple times, since it takes those children longer, and be taught what is bullying and what is not, both in therapy and in the environment, the experimenter’s may have seen learning occur. The Time.com article also slightly displayed this principle. As mentioning the earlier instance of Riley-Hall’s daughter, perceiving the dirty words as a good thing, demonstrates learning does not always lead to change. After that instance, she had not retained those words, so learning did not occur.
Theory of Mind is the ability of people to attribute mental states such as beliefs, intents, desires, pretend play, sarcasm, and knowledge to themselves and others, ultimately understanding others have mental states different from their own. They for normally developing children and adults, this is a very easy task, and it allows us to converse in social situations correctly. However, for children with ASD, they are unable to do this, therefore are unable to have normal reciprocal social interaction with their peers. Due to their underdeveloped theory of mind, their social skills become their greatest struggle, which makes them a target for bullying because they cannot converse with other peers and pick up on their social cues correctly. For example, in the main study, the experimenter’s had the students listen to stories about everyday situations where people say things they actually do not mean, which represent different aspects of theory of mind, such as sarcasm, lying, and pretend. Then, they had to answer two questions, a comprehension and justification, and the answers were judged on 0 to 3. 0, being incorrect and three being fully correct. The average theory of mind tasks was 14.60, which shows the mean level of bullying was rated higher by teachers than peers and selves. This shows kids with ASD have a lower set of ToM, hence their lower scores. Their teachers, who are normally developed, have a higher score when they had to rate their students, which shows they can identify when the students are being bullied or are bullying others. If students with ASD did have a higher ToM score, this would indicate they would be able to pick out bullying situations based on others’ actions and words and their scores would be higher because they could show they can comprehend and justify what was being said in the experiment. Another example of how children with ASD have a lower ToM is from the Time.com article. In the article, Riley-Hall describes an incident of her autistic daughter was being coerced into saying dirty words by boys in her classroom. While she thought this was a good thing, and being nice, the boys were actually making fun of her. This shows her daughter has an underdeveloped ToM because she could not pick up on their mindset and goal, which was making fun of her. If she were to have a higher ToM, she would not have gone saying those bad words and would have known the boys were making fun of her and she could have prevented bullying. Since kids who have ASD have a low ToM cannot pick up on these cues, they let the bullying continue, not because they like it, but because they do not recognize it as such. They either recognize it as a good thing, such as Riley-Hall’s daughter did, or it does not register to them and they ignore it.
In, “Why Autistic Kids Make Easy Target for School Bullies,” has strengths and weaknesses. It also gives valuable information on informing the public about learning and development, and how information can be used in an everyday setting. One of the strengths is it not only explains what the current problem facing bullying is, but it also gives new solutions, such as comprehensive anti-bullying programs and involve the whole school instead of the traditional way of targeting the bully and the victim. The authors of the study also suggest having inclusive classroom and having teenagers with ASD be integrated with protective peer groups. In this case, the teenagers with ASD would benefit from being in a more social environment, practicing their skills and the normal developing teenagers would develop understanding and empathy and their own social skills in working with teenagers with developmental disabilities. It helps their peers understand the disorder and its attributes more which previously were targets for the bullying. A weakness of the article is it does not go into much detail of what ASD is, what causes it, or the characteristics of it. It would have been beneficial to display since many readers only have a vague sense of what it is and the characteristics behind it. If ASD would have been talked about in more detail, it would have given the reader a better sense of why these kids are being bullied, and giving an awareness of the characteristics of ASD as to not make the same mistakes as others make who do bully. The article is important in it brings bullying to the public spotlight. All U.S. citizens know bullying a huge issue facing our typically developing children, but children with disabilities often fly under the radar. It also shows bullying amongst kids with ASD is in fact more prevalent. In terms of informing of learning and development, it shows the lack of learning about disabilities in schools. The article sheds light on ways to conquer this feat in the classroom, such as having a socially centered classroom. We can use the information by having educational systems fulfill these suggestions mentioned above, such as inclusive classes, anti-bullying programs, and peer support groups, into all schools systems. Kids as well as adults can understand those who are different and create a cohesive environment. With this environment, students with ASD will be able to learn to their fullest potential, as to not have to worry about being bullied or become distressed. Typically developing adults and children will be able to be more empathetic and develop awareness to those students and learn they deserve the same respect.
In the peer-reviewed study, “Bullying among Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Prevalence and Perception,” has strengths and weakness, as well. It also gives valuable information on informing the public about learning and development, and how the information can be used in an everyday setting. . Similar to the Time.com article, it had studied bullying and victimization in teenagers who have ASD in a special education school, which has not been studied thoroughly. It also used three different measurements such as, peer-ratings, teacher ratings, and self-ratings to gather data from, which were also unique. The authors had also used perception of bullying by having students watch videos of bullying and non-bullying examples, instead of using pictures. In light of weaknesses, the study had found the level of bullying and victimization were predictors of false negatives and positives. Therefore, the study was correlational, and no actual conclusions could be made. Secondly, there was an unequal gender ratio, boys being the majority since they are more likely to be diagnosed with ASD and the girls were not able to be studied because of a small group. This could have skewed data since boys tend to be more forward when bullying and girls tend to be more verbal, which kids with ASD have a hard time with. Therefore, girls would not likely to display aspects of bullying. In general, there was also a small sample size of students. Given more students or using more special education schools, the study could have looked at girls and boys, and had equal ratios, including the control group, which was also smaller than the independent group. This study has a lot to contribute to knowledge in learning and development. Its most profound one was showing the more teenagers were bullies or being bullied, they were more likely to either mistake non-bully situations as bullying and vice-versa. It has direct linking to an underdeveloped Theory of Mind, which assist in picking up on social cues. This information can be used similarly to the first article in the use of interventions in classrooms and school districts. These must be concentrated on reducing bullying among these teenagers and focusing on how they see bullying, being a victim, along with non-bullying scenarios, and being able to recognize correct instances of each.
In the third article from the Washington Post, has its strengths and weaknesses. One strength of the article gives light to kids with ASD who are higher functioning, such as those with Asperger’s, are put to the side when it comes to classroom inclusion, since the school does not have the time or money to address all of their issues since they are looking at working with kids who are lower functioning. The article recognizes these children also suffer from ASD and should be given the same inclusion and protection as those kids with ASD who are lower in functioning. The second strength of this article is it really emphasizes the importance of teacher to parent communication. It discusses success for conquering bullying does not only depend upon classroom inclusion and teacher observation, but parental observation, such as monitoring a child’s behavioral changes at home, and then working with the teacher to see what is going on in the classroom academically and socially. By working together, bullying can be combatable since the teacher will be able to observe carefully and take necessary actions, maybe talking with the children about what autism is and how kids who have this disorder deserve the same respect. A weakness of this article, though, is it gives the same suggestions of problem-solving as most other articles I have come across. Perhaps these repeat solutions have not worked for some classrooms. It would have been good to have seen alternative ways to conquer this problem. The importance of this article is to bring awareness to this topic. Bullying has always been an issue, but kids with disabilities are more at risk because they cannot defend themselves. This article can allow teachers, peers, and parents to be their voice. In terms of informing of learning and development, it displays the lack of awareness of those with disabilities in the classroom but it also gives reasoning and awareness as to why kids with ASD are more at risk by basing reasons off of their lack of interaction. This information can be used to bring awareness to the classroom, such as having a day where classes learn about these disabilities and teach kids to have empathy and give them an understanding of how kids with disabilities are not different and to treat them with respect. This could also be used to help kids with ASD in therapy. Therapists could work on helping kids identify what bullying is and tasks they could do to stop it, such as walking away, saying no, or going up to a teacher. This would take intervention and time, but it would still help so kids with ASD can have better social skills and prevent themselves from being a victim.
Bullying is too common in schools throughout the United States. Kids of any age, race, gender, or sexual orientation are tormented due to their differences. Those with ASD are often the ones to slip through the cracks, despite being bullied four times more than their peers. Kids with ASD often fall vulnerable due to their lack of social cognitive abilities and their low theory of mind. Through therapy and practice with identifying bullying situations, a kid with ASD could one day be able to stand up for themselves, and that would be the start of something great.
References
Roekel, E. V., Scholte, R. H., & Didden, R. (2010). Bullying Among Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Prevalence and Perception. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. doi:10.1007/s10803-009-0832-2
Szalavitz, M. (2012, September 5). Why Autistic Kids Make Easy Targets for School Bullies | TIME.com. Retrieved from http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/05/why-autistic-kids-make-easy-targets-for-school-bullies/#&SM_LENGTH=8
Williams, M. (2012, September 19). Study shows almost half of children with autism victimized by bullies - On Parenting - The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-parenting/post/study-shows-almost-half-of-children-with-autism-victimized-by-bullies/2012/09/18/b98f93a2-fc32-11e1-b153-218509a954e1_blog.html