When Carter was in first grade, he
was being bullied- by a fifth grader. I still remember the day that it
happened. I had gone down to the school with his mom that day to pick him up;
he climbed into the van and told us that he had to wait in the office that day.
We were confused, and asked what had happened that he had to wait by himself.
He explained that he had gotten too close to the person sitting next to him,
and that person had slapped him. He told the teacher, and she told him that if
he couldn’t handle sitting in the hallway, he should go sit in the office. Of
course, it’s Carter so he moved away so he wouldn’t get in trouble.
You want to see two angry women;
you should have been in that van. Carter did nothing wrong, and when he did the
right thing- by going and getting a teacher. Instead helping, she dismissed it
as tattling.
“Bullying can
take on many forms, including name- calling, physical violence or social
isolation. According to our survey, two in five children with autism have been
bullied. For children with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism, this
is even higher with nearly three in five parents reporting that their children
have been bullied at school. This may be an underestimate: another recent study
found that over 90 per cent of parents of children with Asperger syndrome
reported that their child has been the target of bullying in the past year.”
I googled bullying statistics/children with disabilities and found a 65 page report called "Walk A Mile In Their Shoes Bullying and the Child with Special Needs" from AbilityPath.org. As I looked at the table of contents, I decided to go to the chapter about why children with special needs are frequent targets. The article says children who have disabilities already have lower self esteem and are less likely to stand up for themselves. “Because of difficulties with social interaction and the inability to read social cues, children with autism
ReplyDeleteand Asperger’s syndrome have higher rates of peer rejection and higher frequencies of verbal and physical attacks" (p.9). The article also mentions that some children with developmental disabilities have a difficult time paying attention to more than one piece of information and this can make it difficult for them to maintain conversations and develop relationships with peers. "A study in the British Journal of Learning Support (2008) found that 60 percent of students with disabilities reported being bullied compared to 25 percent of the general student population" (p.10). Also, in 2009 the Massachusetts Advocates for Children conducted a survey of nearly 400 parents and found that 88 percent of the children with autism had been bullied at school in some form. The information I found in the article was sad and I agree with Rachel that bullying needs to be taken very seriously.
Once you find out how extensive bullying is, it makes you realize how important it is for teachers to address.
ReplyDeleteI did further research since reading your last blog about children with Asperger's. I began thinking about the fact that since these children are usually included in the regular classroom, it's likely I will be working with these children myself down the road. What are some strategies that I need to know? I found a journal article called "Supporting Students with Asperger's Syndrome in General Education" By Joan S. Safran. It is from Teaching Exceptional Children, Volume 34, No. 5, pages 60-66, 2002. This article said that even though aides are often assigned in classrooms with Asperger's students, there's not evidence to prove that this is effective. This may not be appropriate for students with mild to moderate impairment, and it should be temporary because it might make the child dependent. The article said that the teacher should think carefully about seating arrangements because any student with Asperger's is a "made-to-order victim and should not be seated in close proximity to known bullies or agressive students" (p.62). The teacher should put the student with Asperger's next to a "peer buddy" (p. 62), an understanding, emphathetic student. The article also said that you should limit the students time on the computer because it might become an obsession and/or a substitute for human contact. The classroom environment should feel safe for the student, the teacher should always prepare the student for changes in routine, she/he should find out what interests that student and use that knowledge. One thing that really stood out to me in this article is that if you have a student in your classroom with Asperger's, you should not take anything they do or say personally. Try to keep the child separate from the syndrome and to see things as they do. I definitely think that the teacher's behavior sets the tone for the whole classroom and for the success of that child.
ReplyDeleteAs a classroom teacher who will probably have children with Asperger's, I am really interested in finding strategies that will reduce the possibility of bullying. In Tony Attwood's article "Strategies to Reduce the Bullying of Young Children with Asperger Syndrome" he talks about how their characteristics can cause an unusual form of bullying called "backhanded bullying". This is where children act like they're being friends, but they're really making fun of them. He says that children with Asperger Syndrome are proactive bullying targets. They are looked at as irritating and that they don't know when to stop. Children with Asperger's may not realize they are being bullied. The article suggests helping the child with Asperger's come up with a standard statement they can use towards the child they think is bullying them. It also suggests teaching them that they can just walk away from bullying situations. It was pointed out that if you work with the parents and support personnel to come up with strategies for the child it makes a huge difference.
ReplyDeleteAustralian Journal of Early Childhood, Sept. 2004.