Bullying experiences and mothers’ responses to bullying of children with autism spectrum disorder

Despite the fact that children with disabilities generally have been shown to be at a greater risk of bullying, which include physical attacks and threats, being picked on and teased and verbal abuse, there is still a need to understand bullying of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the strategies used by parents to support them in tackling this issue. This study aims to investigate the type and level of occurrence of bullying and parental support for children aged five with ASD who suffer from bullying. This study used both quantitative and qualitative analysis; a questionnaire, distributed to mothers of children with ASD, adopted from the Bullying for ASD Survey developed by Chen and Schwartz (Focus Autism Other Dev Disabil 27(4):200–212, 2012) measured types and frequency of bullying and parental support. An open-ended question was added to the survey to enable parents to write about the ways in which their child was bullied and the ways in which they supported their child. The results showed that while children suffered from all types of bullying, especially being picked on, being excluded and called names. Parental support showed a higher prevalence of involving peers and teachers for the prevention of bullying as well as avoiding strategies which included avoiding bullies and none of the mothers encouraged their children to stand up to bullies.